Economist Pham Chi Lan says she is stunned by how the number of business conditions in Vietnam - barriers she once worked tirelessly to remove - has exploded in recent years.

"There are now 15,802 business conditions. I will never forget that number. It’s terrifying," she stated.

Over 25 years ago, as a member of the task force implementing the 2000 Enterprise Law, Chi Lan and her colleagues reviewed hundreds of business conditions. Thanks to their efforts, then-Prime Minister Phan Van Khai abolished nearly 400 of them, triggering a boom in private enterprise.

The “terrifying” number she references closely matches the 15,763 business conditions cited in a recent government report accessed by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI). Despite continuous efforts across government terms - through resolutions 01, 02, and 19 - aimed at streamlining administrative procedures, the burden of unnecessary regulations has continued to grow.

In 2020, the government introduced Resolution 68 to cut and simplify business-related regulations from 2020 to 2025. Yet unnecessary procedures and redundant standards still multiply across a tangled web of legal documents.

According to VCCI, since 2021, ministries and agencies have removed or simplified 3,195 business conditions - just 20.2% of the total. However, these came from only 281 legal texts, while thousands of laws, decrees, decisions, and circulars remain in force.

If the entire legal framework were reviewed, the actual number of business conditions would likely far exceed the reported 15,763. Moreover, VCCI notes that the 20.2% cut often includes outdated, minor, or already defunct provisions - rendering the reform effort largely superficial.

Land procedures: a bureaucratic mountain

Nowhere is the administrative burden heavier than in land-use regulation. A VCCI survey reveals that nearly 74% of businesses have delayed or canceled projects due to difficulties navigating land-related procedures.

This sector alone is governed by approximately 12 laws, more than 20 decrees, and countless circulars. The layers of overlapping and contradictory regulations make it nearly impossible to identify which rules are still valid - especially given the rapid pace of amendments and revisions.

The requirement for investment approval, as outlined in the Investment Law, further complicates matters. It has left enterprises struggling for over two decades. A 2024 National Assembly oversight report found that from the time investment policies are approved, it can take 4–5 years - sometimes up to 20 - for a project to begin construction.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh reported at the ongoing National Assembly session that 2,200 projects nationwide, worth nearly 6 quadrillion VND (around $235 billion USD) and covering over 300,000 hectares, remain stuck in procedural limbo.

The cause? Purely self-imposed bureaucracy.

Restoring constitutional business freedom

Back in 1999, Prime Minister Phan Van Khai created the Enterprise Law Implementation Task Force to enact the law’s groundbreaking principle: “Citizens may do anything not prohibited by law.” This marked a clear break from the previous mindset - where only explicitly permitted actions were allowed.

The task force worked across the country to abolish “sub-licenses” (giay phep con). In a short time, half were eliminated, paving the way for rapid private-sector growth in the early 2000s.

But 25 years later, this reform spirit is bogged down by an expanding thicket of specialized laws, and the absence of a dedicated lead agency like the Ministry of Planning and Investment in its former role. Sub-licenses have reemerged at alarming speed, stifling private sector development.

Legal expert Hai Loc emphasized that the uncontrolled issuance of sub-licenses violates Article 33 of the 2013 Constitution, which affirms: “Everyone has the right to freedom of business in fields not prohibited by law.”

“Unconstitutional business conditions must be abolished. Officials who draft and issue them must be held accountable,” he said. “Instead of negotiating reductions with violators, we should enforce constitutional compliance by punishing those responsible and nullifying their unconstitutional ‘products’.”

This approach, he argued, would save immense time, effort, and public funds - and tackle the root of the problem.

A call for an independent institution

Nguyen Dinh Cung, former head of the Central Institute for Economic Management, criticized the current approach, which relies on the same administrative bodies responsible for the regulatory burdens in the first place. Government-issued action plans, he said, often fail to eliminate entrenched bureaucratic mindsets or sector-specific interests.

“Independent oversight is needed. The current self-regulatory model lacks objectivity and fails to meet the bold spirit of Resolution 68-NQ/TW,” Cung stated.

He proposed a top-down directive, similar to efforts to streamline state agencies or implement Resolution 66-NQ/TW on legal reform. Both resolutions mark a legislative revolution aimed at ending the entrenched "ask-give" mechanism and shifting the focus from pre-approval to post-approval management.

“The Prime Minister should establish a special task force made up primarily of independent experts - reform-minded, experienced, and knowledgeable in legal and institutional change. It should also include business representatives and operate under direct supervision of the Prime Minister,” he suggested.

This, he stressed, is essential to achieving the goal of eliminating 30% of business conditions and reducing compliance costs by the same margin. But to do so, the government must first identify: 30% of what?

Tu Giang - Lan Anh