VCCI Chairman: Businesses still highly concerned about legal risks

In the context of numerous legal changes, where old regulations have expired but replacement documents are not yet available, many businesses find themselves in a situation where complying with the old causes difficulties, while non-compliance is considered a violation, according to VCCI Chairman Ho Sy Hung.

On July 18, Prime Minister Le Minh Hung chaired the Government Standing Committee meeting with the business community under the theme removing bottlenecks – unleashing resources – promoting growth. This was the first time the new Government Standing Committee met with the business community.

Speaking at the conference, Chairman of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) Ho Sy Hung said VCCI had compiled nearly 900 opinions from domestic enterprises, FDI enterprises, and associations into 53 groups of difficulties across 10 areas.

Chairman of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) Ho Sy Hung speaks at the conference, July 18. Photo: VGP

According to him, the most frequently reported issue is institutional uncertainty. Businesses face difficulties when old documents expire before replacement ones take effect, while laws change at a high frequency without a smooth transition process. This means businesses fall into a situation where if they comply with the old, they face obstacles, but if they do not, they are considered in violation, unintentionally falling into huge legal risks.

In addition, VCCI also pointed out that businesses cash flow is still blocked at many stages, especially in value-added tax refunds. According to reports, some businesses have genuine transactions, but because their partners fled, their tax refunds were suspended, leaving their cash flow locked up. Some businesses reflected that the pre-inspection mindset remains heavy, with many types of goods meeting international standards still having to undergo prolonged inspection procedures. Imported chemicals were in some cases stuck at ports due to errors in the National Single Window portal, incurring warehousing costs.

Mr. Hung also argued that the overlap between regulations on investment, planning, land, construction, and environment forces many projects to perform multiple procedures in parallel without a single focal point to handle them. Meanwhile, resources for innovation have not yet been clearly unlocked in practice, lacking a substantive risk-taking mechanism. Credit still relies on mortgaged real estate.

According to the VCCI Chairman, 51 out of 53 groups of recommendations have received feedback from ministries and sectors. However, most responses only stop at citing legal regulations, while many real obstacles lie in the implementation phase. He cited the example of many places still requiring businesses to submit paper documents in parallel with electronic ones, even though the law does not require it.

Based on this reality, VCCI recommends that ministries, sectors, and localities establish a mechanism to measure implementation efficiency through business satisfaction indexes, direct feedback hotlines, and sanctions for officials. At the same time, each group of recommendations should be linked to a leading agency, a responsible person, a handling deadline, and specific results. For interdisciplinary issues, VCCI proposes applying the principle of one focal point, one process, one result so that businesses do not have to coordinate between agencies themselves.

Mr. Dang Hong Anh, Chairman of the Vietnam Young Entrepreneurs Association, mentioned the pressures from land rent policies that member businesses, especially in Khanh Hoa and Ninh Thuan (before merger), are bearing. He cited the case of land rent increasing from 600 million VND in the 2016-2020 period to 4.3 billion VND in the 2021-2025 period and continuing to rise to 20.8 billion VND in the 2026-2030 period.

Thus, the land rent has now increased about 35 times compared to the time the original land lease contract was signed with the province. According to the Association’s representative, in 2025 alone, the land rent of some businesses accounted for about 50% of net revenue.

Mr. Dang Hong Anh, Chairman of the Vietnam Young Entrepreneurs Association, speaks at the conference, July 18. Photo: VGP

From this reality, the Vietnam Young Entrepreneurs Association recommends that the Prime Minister direct a review of the methods, rates, and cycles for determining land lease unit prices towards greater stability, avoiding sudden adjustments that heavily affect the ability to maintain operations, especially in the tourism and resort sectors.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Nga, Acting President of the Vietnam Private Entrepreneurs Association, Chairwoman of BRG Group, and Standing Vice Chairwoman of SeABank, mentioned solutions for developing green credit – a driver for sustainable growth.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Nga, Acting President of the Vietnam Private Entrepreneurs Association, Chairwoman of BRG Group, and Standing Vice Chairwoman of SeABank. Photo: VGP

According to her, green credit outstanding balance has now exceeded 700 trillion VND, growing on average by over 20% per year, but only accounting for about 4.3% of total outstanding credit. To promote green transition, Ms. Nga suggested that the Government needs to complete the mechanism for a 2% annual interest rate support from the state budget for enterprises and household businesses investing in green projects and the circular economy. The policy needs to clearly define beneficiaries, criteria, funding sources, support duration, and monitoring mechanisms to ensure transparency and limit profiteering.

In addition, the Vietnam Private Entrepreneurs Association also proposed building a National Program to develop the supply chain of Vietnamese goods to connect production, processing, distribution, and consumption. The Association recommended having mechanisms to encourage large enterprises to support small enterprises and cooperatives through technology transfer, sharing logistics infrastructure, and connecting consumption.

Concluding the conference, Prime Minister Le Minh Hung requested ministries, sectors, and localities to continue removing obstacles, perfecting institutions, and carrying out more substantive and stronger administrative reforms. He noted that when drafting policies, there should be no legal gaps that leave businesses unsure of which regulations to follow. Furthermore, when ministries and sectors handle difficulties, they must send the solutions to all other ministries, sectors, and 34 provinces and cities so that businesses do not have to encounter similar difficulties with other localities, ministries, and sectors.

There are many ways to innovate to save time and effort for businesses and governments at all levels, the Prime Minister said.

The head of the Government also requested ministries, sectors, and localities to comprehensively review regulations on investment, land, planning, construction, environment, bidding, tax, customs, and specialized inspection. At the same time, they must immediately handle difficulties within their authority, ending overlapping regulations and unreasonable administrative procedures.

In addition, he also requested solutions to unlock resources in terms of capital, land, and investment, ensuring cash flow for production and business. Ministries and sectors must continue to review and cut logistics costs, specialized inspections, and unnecessary compliance costs.

Every new policy must be fully assessed for its impact on businesses costs and competitiveness, minimizing the creation of additional compliance burdens, he noted.

Phuong Dung