Vietnam economy is among countries improving the most across three or more Doing Business topics in 2016/2017, implemented regulatory reforms making it easier to do business. Specifically, Vietnam has improved 8 out of 10 performance indicators with 39 reforms in recent 15 years. In the Doing Business Report 2017, Vietnam is placed at 82nd out of 190 economies with score of 63.83, up 9 places compared to 2016. This year Vietnam’s rank is in the fifth among ASEAN countries, after Singapore (2nd rank globally), Malaysia (24th), Thailand (26th), and Brunei (56th). The ranking of Vietnam is also higher than China as the second largest economy in the world only ranks at 78 out of 190 economies. 

Since its inception—when Doing Business covered 145 economies—the scope of the report has expanded to 190 economies worldwide. The regulatory areas measured by the report have also been expanded to include more aspects that are relevant to the daily operations of domestic small and medium-size firms. 

The objectives of Doing Business to inform the design of reforms and motivate these reforms through country benchmarking. As such, its focus on promoting regulatory reform that strengthens the ability of the private sector to create jobs, lift people out of poverty and create more opportunities for the economy to prosper. The notion that the private sector has substantial economic, social and development impact is now universally recognized. Responsible for an estimated 90% of employment in developing economies, the private sector is ideally placed to alleviate poverty by providing the opportunities to secure a good and sustainable standard of living. 

Doing Business measures aspects of regulation affecting 11 areas of the life of a business. Ten of these areas are included in this year’s ranking on the ease of doing business: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency. Doing Business also measures features of labor market regulation, which is not included in this year’s ranking.

Some achievements of Vietnam worth mentioning are: Vietnam increased the reliability of power supply by rolling out a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) automatic energy management system for the monitoring of outages and the restoration of service; strengthened access to credit by adopting a new civil code that broadens the scope of assets that can be used as collateral; Vietnam made paying taxes easier by abolishing the 12-month mandatory carry forward period for VAT credit and by introducing an online platform for filing social security contributions; Trading across borders: Vietnam made exporting and importing easier by upgrading the automated cargo clearance system and extending the operating hours of the customs department; Enforcing contracts: Vietnam made enforcing contracts easier by adopting a new code of civil procedure and by introducing a consolidated law on voluntary mediation.