Switzerland’s ODA pledge till 2020

On October 11, The Swiss State Secretariat of Economic Affairs (SECO) and the Vietnamese Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) jointly launched Switzerland's new development cooperation strategy with Vietnam for the 2017-2020 period, with one of the key focuses of creating a competitive and resource-efficient private sector.

Accordingly, in 2014-2018, SECO continues to provide nearly $5.6 million financial assistance for the Expansion of the National Business Registration System (NBRS) project.

The objective of this project is to contribute to an enabling business environment for the private sector by facilitating inter-institutional coordination and collaboration among the MPI's Agency for Business Registration (ABR), business registration offices, ministries, and other relevant agencies.

The 2014-2018 project is a continuation of the 2010-2013 phase, when SECO provided over $6.5 million for the project to provide technical assistance to business registration reform in Vietnam.

"The business registration reform is of great importance to the improvement of the Vietnamese business and investment environment, thus encouraging enterprises to enter the market. The Swiss government strongly supports further reformation of the business environment to create favourable conditions for enterprises' operation in Vietnam," said Swiss State Secretary Marie-Gabrielle Ineichen Fleisch, who visited Hanoi on October 10-11.

Before 2010, the registration process for enterprises in Vietnam was still paper-based, cumbersome, and costly. Furthermore, access to transparent and legally valid information on enterprises was severely restricted. This significantly limited business and trade opportunities and consequently lowered the competitiveness of the national economy.

Many foreign investors, including the European Chamber of Commerce, the Japan Business Association in Vietnam, and others, urged Vietnam to simplify administrative procedures to facilitate their operations.

Since the 2008 start of the business registration reform programme with support from international organisations, including SECO, and the recent establishment of NBRS under the MPI, the business climate has improved significantly.

According to the MPI, starting a business has become much easier in Vietnam and now it is only a matter of three days compared to the 15 before 2010. These simplified procedures led to the number of newly-established enterprises breaching the 95,000 threshold in 2015, a 6.5-fold increase against 2010.

Particularly, the percentage of dossiers processed within the statutory time-limit at the Hanoi Business Registration Office is 83.75 per cent. Besides, within a short time, online business registration in Hanoi has reached more than 50 per cent.

In order to facilitate investors, in the near future, the business registration and investment registration procedures applicable to foreign investors will be conducted through a single-point registration mechanism via the investment registration agency.

Switzerland has started providing ODA for Vietnam in 1992. Up to 2016, Switzerland committed CHF467 million ($488 million) to Vietnam's socio-economic development and reform agenda. During 2017-2020, the donor committed to grant CHF90 million ($90.94 million) of ODA to Vietnam.