There are still nearly 3,000 illegal business conditions.

The initial review results of the Ministry of Planning and Investment show that, out of 5,826 business investment conditions applicable to 267 conditional business investment sectors and occupations as prescribed by the Investment Law, up to 2,833 conditions are being prescribed in documents issued without proper authority, including documents issued before and after the Investment Law took effect.

There are still many business conditions that restrict illegal businesses.

This is the result of a review of documents regulating business investment conditions that were issued inconsistently with the authority prescribed by the Investment Law in a report sent by the ministry to the Government.

“It is particularly noteworthy that after the Investment Law took effect, a number of ministries continued to issue and draft circulars regulating business conditions,” according to a report by the Ministry of Planning and Investment.

In a recent interview with TBKTSG Online, Minister of Planning and Investment Bui Quang Vinh affirmed that only decrees from the Government or higher have the right to restrict the business rights of people and enterprises. However, ministries and branches still issue circulars setting out business conditions.

“Any business condition that illegally prohibits people’s rights must be strictly restricted. I see that there is a situation where many sub-licenses are issued, which goes against the spirit of the Investment Law,” said Mr. Vinh.

He said that the Government has just established a Team to implement the Enterprise Law and next year this Team will conduct a general review to see how many additional business conditions have been created to report to the Government.

The report of the Ministry of Planning and Investment shows that there are many unnecessary business investment conditions, creating high compliance costs, limiting market entry for enterprises. For example: requirements for minimum number of vehicles, equipment, warehouse area, number of people with practice certificates, general requirements for business operators to have sufficient professional experience, requirements for business locations to be owned or used...

During the review of business investment conditions, problems related to the application of the Investment Law and specialized laws related to the authority to regulate business investment conditions were discovered.

According to Article 7 of the Investment Law, business investment conditions must be stipulated in laws, ordinances and decrees. However, in cases where some laws assign ministers and heads of ministerial-level agencies to promulgate regulations on business investment conditions, is this promulgation contrary to the provisions of the Investment Law?

"This is an issue that requires consensus among ministries and branches," the Ministry of Planning and Investment raised the issue.

Regarding the review of business investment conditions, the Ministry complained that most ministries and branches have not yet sent reports to the Ministry of Planning and Investment as prescribed in Decree No. 16/2013/ND-CP. The ministries named include: National Defense, Public Security, Labor - Invalids and Social Affairs, Information and Communications, Education and Training, Science and Technology, Health, Culture, Sports and Tourism, Construction, Natural Resources and Environment, and Industry and Trade.

Only a few ministries have submitted reports on reviewing business investment conditions, including Agriculture and Rural Development, Finance, Transport, Justice, and the State Bank of Vietnam.

Regarding the issuance of a decree regulating investment and business conditions for conditional investment and business sectors and occupations as prescribed by the Investment Law, the Ministry of Planning and Investment said that the Ministries of Public Security, Transport, Information and Communications, and Health are still in the process of drafting decrees regulating investment and business conditions for the following sectors: paintball gun business; maritime security services; mobile information jamming and jamming equipment business; information security services business; tissue banking services business, cosmetic services, clinical drug trial services business...

The Ministry of Planning and Investment explained that the main reason for the delay in submitting these decrees to the Government for promulgation is that most of the laws regulating the above-mentioned conditional investment and business sectors and professions were just passed by the National Assembly in 2015.

According to VnEconomy