HCMC to set up business support center

HCMC – The HCMC government intends to set up a business support center that will carry out a survey of business bottlenecks every six months, as one of the solutions to improve its Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI).

The city last year moved down from the 6th to the 8th place in the PCI rankings of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), says a report by the HCMC Department of Planning and Investment at a meeting on PCI improvement on April 11.

Five component indicators in the PCI reading of the city fell. Transparency fell from 6.51 to 6.5 points as businesses believed documents related to State management activities were not readily available, and the link between enterprises and State agencies was not strong enough.

The indicator of fair competition recorded a drop from 4.28 to 4.13 points, with respondents saying the municipal authorities still favor foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs) and State-owned enterprises (SOEs) over others.

The active government indicator declined from 4.19 to 4.17 points. Meanwhile, the indicator of business support services went down from seven to 6.82 points and that of the legal environment slid from 5.04 to 4.25 points.

In terms of transparency, many investors are now expressing their interest in the city, but municipal agencies are not really helpful, said Nguyen Hoang Minh, deputy director of the Department of Planning and Investment.

For example, regarding access to land, when businesses need land to expand their production, they look for equal government support regardless of the type of enterprise. Thus, it is not right to let private firms say the municipal government favors FIEs or SOEs, Minh said.

HCMC vice chairman Tran Vinh Tuyen said that although the city’s access to land indicator improved in 2016, there is still the state of people asking or even giving bribes for land planning quotas. In the coming time, it should be all made public to citizens.

On informal charges, Tuyen suggested city departments and districts strengthen their dialogues with enterprises, encourage them to abandon corrupt practices, since a healthy clean government needs joint efforts from both authorities and society.

In addition, the city will accelerate online public services that reduce direct contact between civil servants and citizens as well as businesses in an attempt to prevent harassment and bring down informal costs.

Meanwhile, to better the indicator of fair competition, the city is looking to build a center for entrepreneurship that will assist enterprises in investment and guide them to do business in all fields. This center will also offer consultancy, help foreign enterprises directly contact the city’s policies and planning to facilitate their investment, and act as a bridge between investors and policies as well as planning in an open and transparent manner.

Moreover, the city will study the formation of its own survey with the criteria suitable for the city. The survey will be conducted every six months, starting early this June (by the HCMC Institute of Economics), which will poll both domestic and foreign investors concerning the issues of their concerns such as taxation, publicity and transparency of planning and procedures.

“We should make State agencies a place for enterprises to rely on rather than their obsession when they want to do business here,” Tuyen said at the meeting on April 11.

- Saigontime- 

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How To Set-up Trading Company in Vietnam

Investment in setting up trading company in Vietnam is considered as investment in conditional investment areas

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The legal basis for a foreign company to set up a company in Vietnam is stated in the Enterprise Law of Vietnam: foreign organizations and individuals will be entitled to establish and manage enterprises in Vietnam in accordance with this law, with some exceptions.  Foreign investors may invest in the form of 100% foreign- owned capital to establish limited liability companies, joint-stock companies, partnerships or private enterprises under the provisions of the Enterprise Law and relevant laws.

The foreign investor shall mostly needs to fulfill the investment registration procedures at provincial-level state agencies in charge of investment in order to be granted the investment certificates, in accordance with Vietnam law in investment. The dossier required for the investment registration shall comprise of an examination dossier, papers showing the capability to satisfy the conditions which the project is required by law to satisfy, for investment projects in conditional investment domains i.e. specific goods to be traded at HS code level, experience in trading area, how the trading procedures would be carried out, potential business in Vietnam.

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Source: ANTLawyers.vn

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