Vietnam now ranks the 92nd among the 181 economies surveyed in the World Bank’s (WB) global report on the ease of doing business, dropping five places compared to the position in the previous report.
According to the WB’s Doing Business 2009 report published September 10, the country posted the fifth in Southeast Asia, behind Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Brunei.
The report said Vietnam sees only improvement in getting credit among the ten assessment criteria of the report; meanwhile, ranking of other criteria such as investment protection, starting business, tax payment, business liquidation remains low. The nation is said to start a business, which take abut 50 days to fulfill.
The payments of taxes still take businesses over 1,000 hours to complete, the same figure as last year. A total of 32 times payments generally have to be made each year, which has put Vietnam among the countries wasting too much time on paying taxes.
The report said Vietnam is one of the 11 Eastern Asian countries with the highest number of business environment reforms in the period between June 2007 and June 2008. The country’s reform is reported in the area of getting credit with the 43rd, the highest in the region.
Vietnam also ranked high in property registration (37th) and enforcing contracts (42nd).
However, some economists have raised doubts about the report’s methodology. Pham Chi Lan, a senior economist, said that “the report does not provide a wholly objective picture about the business environment”, she said.
Lan added that some important reforms in Vietnam in recent years had not been included in the report.
Sharing the same opinion with Pham Chi Lan, Tran Huu Huynh, head of the legal department at the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry said the number of people surveyed should be expanded to garner an overall view on the business environment in Vietnam.
The “Doing Business 2009” ranks economies based on data in many areas including starting business, dealing with construction permits, employing and dismissing workers, registering property, getting credit, paying taxes and trading across borders.
Singapore tops the global rankings, followed by New Zealand and the U.S. (Vietnam Economic Times, VNS)
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