Vietnam leapt 14 places to 68th among 190 countries in the 15th edition of the World Bank’s Doing Business 2018 report, a significant improvement in the country’s business environment.
Nguyen Minh Thao, head of the Business Environment and Competitiveness Department under the Central Institute for Economic Management, said this is the biggest jump in a decade.
The annual report measures the effectiveness and quality of business regulations based on 11 indicator sets, namely starting a business, resolving insolvency, enforcing contracts, paying taxes, trading across borders, protecting minority investors, getting credit and registering property, getting electricity, dealing with construction permits and labor market regulation.
Vietnam made the most improvement in paying taxes, climbing 14.78 points and 81 places to the 86th position from 167th last year.
Vietnam made paying taxes easier by abolishing the 12-month mandatory carry forward period for value-added tax (VAT) credit and by introducing an online platform for filing social security contributions, the report said.
For getting electricity, Vietnam increased the reliability of power supply by rolling out a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) automatic energy management system for the monitoring of outages and the restoration of service. The nation was ranked 64th, up 32 places versus last year.
For getting credit, Vietnam stood at 29th among 190 economies for strengthening access to credit by adopting a new civil code that broadens the scope of assets that can be used as collateral.
Meanwhile, Vietnam fell in four indicators including starting a business, registering property, trading across borders and resolving insolvency as other countries made better improvements, Thao said.
For trading across borders, the World Bank still recognized Vietnam’s effort in making export and import activities easier by upgrading the automated cargo clearance system and extending the operating hours of the customs agencies.
The better business environment is the result of the Government’s measures to assist businesses, especially resolutions 19 and 35, the expert noted.
Vietnam ranked after four ASEAN countries: Singapore (second), Malaysia (24th), Thailand (26th) and Brunei (56th). Meanwhile, Indonesia came 72nd and the Philippines 113th.
Notably, Thailand, Indonesia and Brunei even made stronger improvements than Vietnam, leaping 20, 19 and 16 places against last year respectively. In the past two years, Indonesia and Brunei have made significant rises in the ranking.
According to Thao, the rapid rises of regional countries urge Vietnam to do more on business environment reform.
(thesaigontimes.vn)
