Hanoi (VNA) -The Ministry of Planning and Investment has proposed the government to hastenefforts aimed at improving the business environment in 2018.

The ministry said Vietnam’s ranking in doing business had improved considerablyin the past four years since the government implemented Resolution 19 onimproving the business climate and national competitiveness.

However, it lacked sustainability because there were indices with noimprovement at all or with results far below expectation, such asinfrastructure quality, ease of starting a business or insolvency proceedings,the ministry said.

It proposed Resolution 19 for 2018 to be issued with a focus on measures tolift those indices that ranked low as well as to add targets to improvecompetitiveness in the tourism and logistics sectors and to enhance labourproductivity.

Vietnam’s target is to rank 50-60 in the business climate in 2018.

Last year, the country moved up 14 places to rank 68th out of 190 countries,according to the World Bank’s Doing Business report.

The percentage of goods requiring specialised checks for customs clearance istargeted to be cut from 30-35 percent to 15 percent in the third quarter of2018.

Resolution 19 had stipulated this to be achieved by 2017, which did not materialise.

The ministry revealed in a recent report that the cost for specialised checksfor customs clearance was still a huge burden on businesses.

The ministry cited the case of a company importing wood products which mustbear cost worth dozens of billions of dong per year for storage as aresult of quarantine requirement.

The specialised checks were not based on a risk-based approach, did not allowthe use of the testing results on the same import product models of othercompanies and did not actively recognise quality of famous brands. “This causeshuge wastes,” the ministry said.

In addition to this, specialised checks proved to be time consuming, adding tothe risks of businesses, according to the ministry.

For example, for animal feed, the time for quality check at the Department ofAnimal Husbandry was 14 days and three weeks each at the Directorate ofFisheries and Directorate of Energy.

Statistics of the customs watchdog showed there were still some 430 documentson specialised checks.

Overlap in specialised checks between ministries, such as Industry and Trade,Agriculture and Rural Development and Health was another problem.

According to the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), businessesexpected more administrative reforms in tax, customs and land access as well asreduction in unnecessary and time-consuming specialised checks.

VCCI said businesses favoured an end to overlapping between ministries andsimplified procedures.

Firms also called for a fair access to resources and business opportunities andreduced business costs.-VNA