Enterprise Law revisions discussed

Workers at a seafood plant in Tac Cau Industrial Park in southern Kien Giang Province process shrimp for export.

This was debated in Hanoi yesterday during a workshop to forecast the impact of the amended Enterprise Law from the perspective of a global business index in 2013.

At the workshop, delegates focused on the shortcomings of the Enterprises Law 2005, and outlined proposals and petitions for its revision to make it more transparent and fair for businesses and people.

Lawyer Vu Xuan Tien said there was a need to revise and supplement some contents of the revised Enterprise Law to create conditions favourable to enterprises and people who were interested in doing business. Specifically, inspections should be conducted on businesses a year after getting the certificate of business registration.

Tien said that State-owned enterprises should not be permitted to get directly involved in advising and making policies or in controlling and regulating the market, and performing other management tasks, so as to prevent monopoly. This was damaging the interests of other businesses, as is the case at present.

Luong Minh Huan, of the Institute for Business Development, attributed the dissolution or temporary halt in production of a large number of businesses to poor inspection after registration and limited support conditions.

Huan said, compared with regional countries, Vietnam's business conditions were lagging behind with regard to finance, support programmes from the government, and business support services.

According to Huan, apart from simplifying the business procedures and making transparent business policies, relevant bodies needed to enhance inspections after registration and supervise business performances.

Pham Thi Thu Hang, VCCI General Secretary, said that after eight years of implementation, the Enterprise Law 2005 still revealed deficiencies and limitations that needed revamping if the quality of business had to be improved.

In the last three years, the number of businesses that had shut down or were dissolved remained high. As of the first quarter this year, of the 790,000 newly-registered businesses, more than 296,000 businesses were dissolved or had stopped production.

The problem mentioned above had forced relevant bodies to reconsider the existing business conditions to see whether the Enterprise Law facilitated business or not, Hang said.