Tu Hoang
The PM was quoted by the Government’s portal chinhphu.vn as saying at a regular cabinet meeting in Hanoi on Monday that it is important to remove hurdles to business activity, especially in the fields of tax and business registration procedures.
“Such hindrances should be removed immediately to create a more favorable environment for people and enterprises,” PM Dung stressed.
In the first two months of 2015, the PM noted, a large number of enterprises were forced to suspend operations. He requested ministries and agencies to seriously look into the cause of this situation.
The January-February period saw over 13,760 new businesses with total registered capital of VND77.52 trillion set up, up 26.6% in number and 23.3% in capital compared to the same period last year, according to the Business Registration Agency.
More than 4,370 enterprises resumed operations in the period, rising by 20.2% year-on-year, said the agency under the Ministry of Planning and Investment.
However, more than 16,000 enterprises went bust or were temporarily shut down in the first two months of this year. The number of temporarily-suspended firms grew 25% compared to the same period last year.
The majority of suspended enterprises in the first two months of this year had registered capital of less than VND10 billion each, and operated in retail, car and motorcycle repair, construction, processing, and manufacturing.
“The figures show enterprises are not yet out of the woods,” the agency’s report said. They need more support from the Government and ministries to overcome difficulties.
To facilitate domestic enterprises, the PM told ministries and agencies to review and suggest revisions to legal documents and policies to ensure a level playing field for businesses. They should set detailed and viable targets to streamline administrative procedures, particularly for tax, customs, business establishment, energy and social insurance fields.
“Improving the business environment and the nation’s competitive edge are among decisive factors for our socio-economic development… and sustainable development,” PM Dung said.
He also requested ministries and agencies to prepare plans to stabilize the exchange rate between the Vietnam dong and the U.S. dollar and lower lending interest rates to support companies to execute their production and trading.
Other major tasks this year are to equitize State-owned enterprises to enhance their operations and restructure the banking sector. He said weak banks would be merged and their bad debts will be settled so that the average bad debt ratio could go down to 3% at the end of this year as targeted.
Đăng ký: VietNam News