Back in 2008, the business 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 local economy.
Through a long-term commitment, the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs SECO supported the Agency for Business Registration (ABR) within the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) to set up a National Business Registration System (NBRS). Implemented by the United Nationals Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), SECO provides technical assistance and capacity development to ABR amounting to USD 12.3 mio for the period 2010-2018.
During her visit to Vietnam, State Secretary Ms Marie-Gabrielle Ineichen Fleisch took the opportunity to visit the Business Registration Office (BRO) in Hanoi’s Cầu Giấy district to get an impression on the results achieved through this cooperation to date. Today the BRO is able to offers efficient front and back-office registration procedures to new entrepreneurs. The administrative simplifications proposed and implemented by the project, allowed for a reduction of the statutory time-limit for business registration from 15 days before 2010 to 3 days in 2015. The first year of implementing the revised legal framework under the new enterprise law witnessed a record with more than 100,000 new enterprises and over USD 35 billion in capital registered, representing an increase of more than 25% and 40%, respectively, compared with the same period a year before.
Beyond that, a database of more than 1.2 million business entities is now available online, providing legally valid and binding information on Vietnamese domestic and foreign-invested enterprises via the National Portal on Business Registration. In addition, data on Foreign Invested Enterprises and State Owned Enterprises are also being digitized and transferred into the NBRS, and business registration will soon be harmonized with the process on investment licensing through a single point of registration.
“I would like to thank the ABR as well as the local BRO for arranging todays visit. We fully support your commitment to further improve the environment for entrepreneurs in doing business in this country. I am very impressed by the development over the last years I witnessed during today’s visit.” said Swiss State Secretary Marie-Gabrielle Ineichen Fleisch during her visit at the BRO in Cầu Giấy district
“We would like to express our sincere appreciation and recognition of the Swiss Government in general, and of SECO in particular for your co-operation and support in the development of a sustainable and equitable economy of Vietnam. The achievements of our co-operation in business registration have brought about fundamental changes in public services towards modernization through the application of information technology in exchanging and sharing enterprise information, which is in line with the sustainable development objective of the framework of cooperation between the two governments” said Mrs Tran Thi Hong Minh – Director General of the Agency for Business Registration, MPI.
Later today, the Swiss Secratery of State together with the Ministry of Investment and Planning will launch officially Switzerland’s new Development Cooperation Strategy 2017-2020 with Vietnam. (Cf separate press release). This strategy represents a solid basis for continuing the longstanding collaboration between the two countries in the coming four year.
For further information, please contact:
Miroslav Delaporte
Country Director
Swiss Cooperation Office for Vietnam
State Secretariat for Economic Affairs SECO
Embassy of Switzerland
Hanoi Central Office Building, 16th Floor
44B Ly Thuong Kiet Street, Hanoi, Vietnam
G.P.O Box 42
Phone: +84 4 3934 66 27; Fax: +84 4 3934 66 33
miroslav.delaporte@eda.admin.ch
www.eda.admin.ch/vietnam
