Vietnamese Gov’t eyes more favorable business environment in 2024

The Vietnamese Government expects a more favorable business environment for enterprises in 2024, reflected in the number of businesses entering the market, including newly established and re-established enterprises, reaching 240,000, a 10% increase compared to the previous year.

Cement production at Vicem Company. Photo: Viet Dung/The Hanoi Times

The figures were mentioned in the Government’s newly-announced Resolution 02 on tasks and solutions for improving the business environment. Additionally, the number of businesses withdrawing from the market is projected to decrease by under 10%, or to 190,000 companies.

This objective aligns with the latest forecast by the General Statistics Office, which estimates that an additional 230,500 businesses will join the economy in 2024. Among them, 162,500 would be newly established, and 68,000 reinstated, marking a 16% increase.

In 2023, data from the Business Registration Management Agency under the Ministry of Planning & Investment revealed that the number of new and reinstated businesses was nearly 220,000, a 4.5% increase compared to the previous year. Meanwhile, 172,500 entities were dissolved, reflecting a 20.5% increase from 2022.

Resolution 02 also emphasizes ensuring the freedom of business for citizens and enterprises and fostering a conducive environment for new business ideas and innovation. Reforms focus on reducing the number of procedures, time, costs, and risks for businesses.

To achieve these goals, the Government plans to enhance the quality of policy-making. Inspection and review plans are to be streamlined to ensure that there will be no duplication, overlap, or hindrance to businesses.

The Government is also concentrating on removing regulatory bottlenecks, reforming the list of conditional business sectors and business conditions, enhancing access to capital for businesses, and refining policies while improving the quality of business development services.

The target is to improve the country's ranking in the World Intellectual Property Organization's Global Innovation Index (GII) by three places, including an increase of at least three places in the Information Technology Infrastructure Index, and an advance of five places in the ICT services export index and ten places in the environmental quality index.

The GII is a reputable tool for assessing a country's innovation and creative capabilities globally. Recently, this index has been utilized as a managerial tool to guide and assign responsibilities to different levels and sectors in charge of improving the index. Over the past six years, Vietnam's GII has consistently improved, rising from the 59th position in 2016 to 46th out of 132 countries and economies in 2023.

Furthermore, by 2025, the Vietnamese Government has set the goal to improve the Customs Clearance index by 0.2 points in the World Bank's Logistics Performance Index.

Various ministries and localities are tasked with developing specific plans to implement this resolution before January 20.