HCM City (VNA)- Improving the investment and business environment and administrative reformsare among the measures needed to facilitate the development of businesses in HoChi Minh City, a seminar heard on September 6.

Tran Thi Binh Minh, deputydirector of the city’s Department of Planning and Investment, said as of May 25the city had 309,138 businesses, 89.25 percent of them very small, 4.3 percentsmall, 5 percent medium-sized and 1.37 percent large.

In response to theGovernment’s target of having 1 million businesses in the country by 2020, the city’sauthorities last year issued a resolution to help expand the number in the cityto 500,000, many of them large, she said.

The city has draftedspecific measures to create favourable conditions for businesses, includingsimplifying administrative procedures, setting up hotlines to receive feedbackfrom companies and help them resolve their difficulties in a timely manner anddeveloping programmes to provide information about support policies, she said.

The city has also issueddecisions to promote start-ups, especially by youths and students, and helphousehold businesses develop into companies, she said.

Nguyen Dinh Tue, directorof the Centre for Supporting Small and Medium sized Enterprises, said whileadministrative procedures have been streamlined somewhat, they are still slowand do not meet businesses’ expectations.

He called for continuedreform and changing the approach towards it, otherwise “it will be hard tochange the situation,” he said.

Businesses facedifficulties, including the need to obtain a slew of sub-licences, inspectionsby multiple agencies, and problems related to funding, land, human resources,demand, and others, he said.

The number of businessesnot functioning is very large at around 41 percent, he said.

The city needs to holddiscussions with businesses to resolve their difficulties, he said.

To encourage householdbusinesses to become companies, the city needs to offer free support withincorporation and other procedures, he said.

Several delegates said newbusinesses should be offered legal, accounting and tax consultancy atsubsidised rates.

District leaders saidrelevant agencies should have clear instructions on helping householdbusinesses expand into companies.

Nguyen Van Dung, head ofthe municipal People Council’s economic and budget division, said comprehensivemeasures are needed from the Government and local agencies to create a levelplaying field for businesses.

Besides, businessesthemselves need to be more active in grasping opportunities and capitalising ontheir resources and the Government’s support policies to develop, he said.

Many delegates said it isalso necessary to focus on quality rather than solely on quantity.

They also called forbuilding strong national trademarks to enhance competitiveness in the regionaland global markets.-VNA