Hanoi, Vietnam. Cutting administrative procedures, resolving legal bottlenecks and unlocking resources were identified as key measures to improve the business environment, give companies greater confidence to invest and strengthen their competitiveness, helping drive sustainable growth.
For businesses, the quality of the business environment is reflected in the time required to complete administrative procedures, compliance costs, access to capital and land, and policy stability. Institutional reform should therefore go beyond reducing red tape to build business confidence and encourage companies to invest and expand operations.
Nguyen Xuan Tho, Deputy Director of the Agency for Private Enterprise and Collective Economy Development under the Ministry of Finance, said the ministry had reviewed practical conditions and advised the Government to issue Resolution No. 02/NQ-CP on key tasks and solutions to improve the business environment and enhance national competitiveness in 2026. The resolution sets out seven priority groups of measures and assigns responsibilities to ministries, sectors and localities.
The measures focus on improving the institutional framework, reviewing conditional business lines, streamlining administrative procedures, unlocking resources and supporting businesses. The goal is to remove barriers directly affecting investment, production and business operations.
In the first nine months of 2026, efforts to review and improve the legal framework were stepped up. At the first session of the 16th National Assembly, lawmakers passed nine laws and 31 resolutions to translate development policies into law.
The Ministry of Finance also advised on refining policies on investment, corporate income tax, personal income tax and tax administration to address shortcomings identified in practice.
During the nine-month period, the ministry advised on and implemented tax, fee and charge exemptions, reductions and payment extensions worth about 245.6 trillion VND, or 9.5 billion USD. The measures helped ease cash-flow pressures, sustain business operations and free up resources for investment.
Tho said ministries and agencies had responded to and fully resolved all 202 of the 202 business recommendations received to date.
From the business community’s perspective, the gap between policy and implementation remains a major bottleneck in the business environment.
Ho Sy Hung, Chairman of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said businesses could have different experiences with the same regulation depending on the locality.
Decisive implementation can help companies benefit from policies sooner, while delays elsewhere may cause them to miss investment and business opportunities, he said.
In July 2026, VCCI compiled nearly 900 specific concerns raised by businesses into 53 groups of issues across 10 sectors. The feedback showed that businesses need not only individual administrative procedures to be resolved, but also a stable, consistent and predictable policy environment, Hung said.
Hung said the previous phase focused on breakthroughs in institutional reform, while the next should place greater emphasis on breakthroughs in implementation.
Reform should be measured not simply by the number of amended regulations or procedures cut, but by whether policies are implemented consistently, processing times are shortened and business costs are reduced, he added.
To narrow this gap, Tho suggested that ministries, sectors and localities improve lawmaking, remove market-access barriers, simplify administrative procedures, make processes transparent and standardise how business recommendations are received and addressed.
Digital transformation in public service delivery should go hand in hand with reducing unnecessary face-to-face interactions, curbing informal costs and strengthening dialogue to resolve problems at an early stage, he said.
Tho also proposed shifting from pre-inspection to post-inspection where appropriate for each sector, based on clear standards and technical regulations and stronger risk-based oversight.
Nguyen Duc Hien, deputy head of the Party Central Committee’s Commission for Policy and Strategy, said that promoting the private sector, using the potential of all economic sectors, and advancing science and technology, innovation and digital transformation are foundations for achieving double-digit economic growth.
Hien said traditional growth drivers need to be revitalised. For exports, the focus should go beyond increasing turnover to raising value added, boosting the share of value created domestically and setting appropriate development directions for each industry group.
Sectors including research and development, tourism, logistics, energy, and finance and banking need to be promoted because they can drive growth and create spillover effects.
Established industries such as electronics, digital technology, textiles and garments, footwear, and food processing should continue to upgrade product quality, strengthen technological capabilities and increase domestic value added, Hien suggested.
Sources: VietnamPlus / Vietnam News Agency
