Doing business in Vietnam gets easier in 2016

Vietnam’s business environment improved in 2016, according to the World Bank’s 2017 Doing Business report released today.

According to the report, Vietnam went up in the ranking from 91 out of 189 countries in the world in the 2016 report to 82 out of 190 countries in the 2017 report. The country’s distance to frontier score rose from 61.11 to 63.83. The distance to frontier score shows how far on average an economy is at a point in time from the best performance achieved by any economy on each Doing Business indicator since 2005 or the third year in which data for the indicator were collected.

The country saw improvement in ranking in four criteria out of ten and a fall in ranking in the remaining six. The city covered in Vietnam by the Doing Business report is Ho Chi Minh City.

In 2016, Vietnam made starting a business more difficult by requiring entrepreneurs to receive approval of the seal sample before using it. However, it strengthened minority investor protections by making it easier to sue directors in cases of prejudicial transactions between interested parties, by increasing shareholder rights and role in major corporate decisions, by strengthening the ownership and control structures of companies and by increasing corporate transparency requirements.

Vietnam also made paying taxes easier and less costly by streamlining the administrative process of complying with tax obligations and abolishing environmental protection fees. It also made trading across borders easier by implementing an electronic customs clearance system.

By Hong Anh / vir