Prime Minister's Working Group: Many recommendations to remove difficulties for businesses
The Prime Minister's working group made many recommendations to remove very specific difficulties and obstacles for businesses, such as removing the maximum foreign ownership limit of 49% for businesses that are not subject to restrictions...
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| The Government's working group made many recommendations to help businesses overcome difficulties. Photo: VGP |
According to the report, from January 1, 2017 to April 30, 2018, there were a total of 26,705 tasks assigned by the Government and the Prime Minister to ministries, agencies and localities. Of these, 15,876 tasks were completed (on time: 13,458, overdue: 2,418); 10,829 tasks were not completed (on time: 10,440, overdue: 389 - accounting for 2.4%, down 2.3% compared to the previous month).
Implementing the Prime Minister's direction, in April 2018, the Prime Minister's Working Group inspected the Ministry of Finance and Vietnam Cement Industry Corporation in performing assigned tasks and reviewing and developing plans to simplify, reduce, and abolish unnecessary and unreasonable business conditions (BCC) to create a favorable investment and business environment for people and businesses.
According to Minister, Head of the Government Office Mai Tien Dung, Head of the Working Group, the inspection results showed that the Ministry of Finance was assigned many tasks, including many important and complicated tasks related to the macro economy, but with the drastic, responsible and effective direction and management of the Ministry's leaders, the dynamism and creativity of the entire sector's staff, the Ministry has been very serious in completing the tasks assigned by the Government and the Prime Minister.
From January 1, 2017 to March 15, 2018, there were a total of 1,567 tasks assigned to the Ministry of Finance. Of these, 1,340 tasks have been completed; 213 tasks are being implemented within the deadline; 14 tasks are overdue (accounting for only 0.10%).
In addition to the achieved results, the Prime Minister requested that the Ministry take measures to rectify and overcome some aspects of work under the Ministry's management.
Regarding the results of reviewing and developing plans to simplify and reduce business conditions, the Ministry of Finance currently has 370 business conditions, stipulated in 8 Laws and 15 Decrees. Of the total 370 business conditions currently regulated by the Ministry, there are many general, overlapping, unnecessary, unquantifiable business conditions that easily create gaps for officials performing public duties to harass and engage in negativity. They need to be simplified, reduced, and abolished, such as: "Having a working office that ensures securities trading activities"; "modern, synchronous, and can be easily upgraded"; "having good ethics"...
Reporting to the Working Group, the Ministry of Finance said that it has reviewed and planned to simplify, reduce and abolish 188/370 business conditions, reaching 50.8%.
The inspection results at Vietnam Cement Industry Corporation show that VICEM is growing stronger and developing. VICEM accounts for 35 - 36% of the cement market share in the country and has become the pillar of the Vietnamese cement industry, a regulatory tool of the State in stabilizing supply - demand and prices.
Every year, VICEM stabilizes jobs for tens of thousands of workers, contributes to ensuring social security and makes great contributions to the country's socio-economic development and the cause of industrialization and modernization.
VICEM is also one of the units that seriously carry out assigned tasks, with no overdue tasks. From January 1, 2017 to March 15, 2018, there were a total of 18 tasks assigned to VICEM; 16 tasks were completed; 2 tasks were not completed but within the deadline.
However, besides the achieved results, there are still some aspects of work, such as: the contribution ratio of the cement industry in socio-economic development is still low; some investment projects of VICEM are not suitable for reality, some projects have to be stopped for transfer; the application of advanced technology, innovation in management to reduce costs has not met requirements; land management, asset management; joint ventures and associations to use by-products of the industry; environmental issues; equitization and divestment work... are still inadequate and limited, the Prime Minister requested VICEM to focus on directing and finding solutions to overcome these.
Remove foreign ownership restrictions
Based on the inspection results at the Ministries and agencies, the Working Group recommended to the Government and the Prime Minister to direct the inspected Ministries in April and relevant Ministries and agencies to deploy a number of tasks.
Specifically, for the Ministry of Finance, urgently direct the functional units of the Ministry to complete the assigned tasks that are overdue, ensuring compliance with the instructions of the Government and the Prime Minister. Be more proactive and active in participating in strategic conferences at the national level chaired by the Prime Minister.
Resolutely direct the General Department of Taxation and the General Department of Customs in urging and handling tax arrears to reduce the rate of tax arrears to below 5% of total state budget revenue in accordance with the Government's direction in Resolution 01/NQ-CP.
Urgently develop and submit draft laws amending tax laws to immediately remove tax problems for businesses; continue to strictly manage and collect taxes correctly, sufficiently and promptly from large business households; have effective measures to prevent tax losses for individual business households and environmental resource exploitation taxes; research and propose simple tax collection policies and accounting regimes suitable for small businesses, especially businesses converted from business households in accordance with the Prime Minister's direction in Directive No. 07/CT-TTg, dated March 5, 2018.
Continue to innovate and streamline the financial staff, ensuring professionalism, efficiency, dynamism and creativity. Take measures to rectify and immediately overcome the harassment, negativity and violations of professional ethics that still occur in the Customs sector and take strict measures to handle officials who have negative behaviors and harass businesses...
Urgently advise the Government and the Prime Minister on synchronous solutions to handle finances and determine enterprise value before equitization and divestment, ensuring compliance with legal regulations and market mechanisms, preventing negativity, group interests, and loss of capital and State assets.
The working group also recommended that the Ministry urgently report and propose to the Government and the Prime Minister on changing the tax policy for the rate of 3% of the total amount of surplus raw materials and supplies imported for export processing as prescribed in Clause 4, Article 10 of Decree 134/2016/ND-CP, in the direction of not prescribing the rate for each element of scrap, waste, surplus raw materials, supplies and components, but rather prescribing specific regulations suitable to the reality for each element to create favorable conditions and enhance the competitiveness of enterprises.
Along with that, continue to carefully review unreasonable, unnecessary, non-specific, and non-quantifiable business conditions to continue simplifying, reducing, and abolishing unnecessary business conditions; the simplification, reduction, and abolition of business conditions must fundamentally resolve current shortcomings and problems and achieve the goal of creating an open and favorable investment and business environment for people and businesses participating in the market.
Urgently develop plans to amend and supplement regulations on business registration in the Laws; develop and submit to the Government and the Prime Minister for promulgation a Decree amending many Decrees regulating business registration under the management of the Ministry.
The Ministry of Finance shall coordinate with the Ministry of Planning and Investment to review conditional business lines and cases of foreign ownership restriction of listed enterprises and concentrated trading registration enterprises as prescribed in Point a, Clause 1, Article 2 of Decree 60/2015/ND-CP to remove the maximum foreign ownership restriction of 49% for enterprises not subject to foreign ownership restriction.
For the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the Working Group recommends that the Departments of Natural Resources and Environment of provinces and centrally-run cities promptly issue documents to guide and direct them to properly implement Decree No. 154/2016/ND-CP in accordance with the content of the Ministry of Finance's comments to remove difficulties and obstacles for seafood enterprises. This is an issue related to the enterprise's discharge fees that the Ministry of Finance has commented on, but according to enterprises, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has not "communicated".
For the Ministry of Construction, urgently research, advise and propose to the Government and the Prime Minister to review the development plan of cement factories to suit the current development situation of the cement industry.
At the same time, consider VICEM's proposal in the investment strategy to develop and increase production capacity or acquire through mergers and acquisitions (M&A) to increase production scale, meeting the growth requirements of the cement industry.