The Government officially submitted to the National Assembly to remove 36 conditional business sectors.

The Government has just submitted to the National Assembly a draft law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Laws related to investment and business, with the aim of removing many barriers that limit investment, improving the business environment and enhancing the efficiency of business operations. The most popular recommendation is to remove more than 36 industries that do not require conditional business regulations.

Accordingly, the construction of the above law is consistent with the reality of investment and business activities in Vietnam, and at the same time meets the expectations of the business community and people. Moreover, this is a step to unify investment procedures, not to repeat the situation of many binding provisions, tying up businesses in different specialized laws.

36 conditional business lines proposed to be abolished

According to the Submission, the Government proposed to the National Assembly to abolish 36 industries and professions that do not need to be regulated as conditional business industries and professions; merge 25 industries and professions into 07 industries and professions; standardize the names of 36 industries and professions and add 12 industries and professions that are required to be conditionally operated in accordance with the requirements of ensuring national defense, security, social order and safety, social ethics, community health and environmental protection.

With the Government's Draft Proposal, the number of conditional business lines has been reduced by 49 lines compared to the List of 267 conditional business lines as prescribed by the current Investment Law 2014 (some lines had previously been removed).

Previously, in early September 2016, the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) proposed to remove 67 conditional business lines in the 2014 Investment Law, including many lines such as car maintenance and warranty services, pay television, surrogacy services, drainage services; gold bar production, money printing and minting, debt trading services... At the same time, the ministry also proposed to add 14 freely-operated business lines to the "basket" of conditional business lines.

According to the Government's Report to the National Assembly, many barriers to business and investment freedom are proposed to be amended and removed.

Typically, additional regulations assign the Government to regulate investment and business activities of foreign investors in a number of industries, professions and localities to ensure national defense, security, social order and safety, social ethics, public health, protection of resources and environment...

Typically, the regulations on licensing and approving foreign investment (FDI) projects are currently under the authority of the locality. However, many projects have been and are being licensed indiscriminately, breaking development planning, causing redundancy and causing particularly serious consequences such as the cement, steel, petrochemical, and thermal power industries. According to the Government, this supplement aims to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of state management of investment activities, ensuring more selective foreign investment attraction.

Regarding investment facilitation and business operations, the Government's Proposal recommends amending articles to simplify the procedures for "investment registration" and "business registration" of foreign investors in the direction of connecting these procedures at the Investment Registration Agency. Amending Article 26, requiring the Investment Registration Agency to receive dossiers and handle procedures for capital contribution, purchase of shares, and capital contributions of foreign investors in economic organizations.

Another point is that the Government proposed to abolish the regulation on monthly reporting (statistical reporting) of enterprises to the Ministry of Planning and Investment and the General Department of Taxation, in order to simplify administrative procedures and reduce unnecessary burdens for enterprises in implementing the reporting regime.

Regarding this, previously, at the Conference to receive suggestions from enterprises held in July 2016, a number of foreign-invested enterprises in Vietnam "complained" that they had to make 72 reports to the Ministry of Planning and Investment every year because of the regulations in Circular 04/2011/TT-Ministry of Planning and Investment: the requirement to report basic statistics applied to enterprises with foreign elements applied from March 2011.

According to Dan Tri