Mechanism for private economic development to be passed this weekend

At the 45th session of the National Assembly (NA) Standing Committee on May 14, the NA's draft resolution on policies for private economic development was discussed and commented on. Deputy Minister of Finance Nguyen Duc Tam presented some highlights of the draft.

The NA's draft resolution will stipulate policies for private economic development to mobilise and diversify resources and unlock social resources to focus on rapidly developing socioeconomic infrastructure, meeting the requirements of double-digit economic growth.

The draft highlights the principles of inspection, licensing, and certification for enterprises, households, and individual businesses to improve the effectiveness of inspection and examination, remove overlapping and duplication, and shift from pre-inspection to post-inspection.

No enterprise or business household shall be inspected or examined more than once a year, unless there is clear evidence of violations. Acts of abusing inspection and examination to harass or cause difficulties for enterprises will be strictly handled. Remote inspection based on e-data will be prioritised to reduce the direct method.

The draft resolution also clearly distinguishes between the responsibilities of legal entities and the responsibilities of individuals; between criminal liability and administrative and civil liability; and between administrative liability and civil liability.

For violations and civil and economic cases, priority is given to applying civil, economic, and administrative measures. Enterprises, households, and individual businesses will be allowed to proactively remedy violations.

For violations that are serious enough for criminal prosecution, proactive, timely, and comprehensive measures to remedy economic consequences will be given priority first and will be an important basis for prosecution agencies to consider. Legal provisions shall not be applied retroactively to handle cases that are unfavourable to enterprises, business households, and business individuals, Tam highlighted.

Appreciating the fact that the draft resolution was completed just 10 days after the issuance of Resolution No.68-NQ/TW, NA Chairman Tran Thanh Man said that the Ministry of Finance has worked hard to meet the progress of passing the resolution by this weekend.

"The NA will try to pass the resolution on May 17. This is a concise resolution, with new breakthroughs in private economic development," he emphasised. "Moreover, when amending numerous laws, the contents related to the private economy will be amended and supplemented to laws on criminal, civil, administrative, inspection, tax, science, and technology."

To complete the draft resolution before submitting to the NA, he asked relevant agencies to review the contents on supporting science and technology, innovation, digital transformation, improvements to the investment and business environment, and ensuring equality between domestic and foreign private enterprises.

Regarding international agreements and commitments, the NA chairman said they should not conflict with international treaties and previous laws. "It is necessary to change the mindset, the state should support instead of control, the management mindset needs to shift to supporting and serving," he urged.

In addition, the NA chairman emphasised financial resources for implementing policies on supporting infrastructure investment; supporting land rent for high-tech enterprises, small- and medium-sized enterprises; credit support for startups and innovative enterprises; and tax exemptions for enterprises. We should review the beneficiaries of the policies to ensure feasibility in practice, he added.

The Ministry of Finance is looking at the comments made at the meeting and will update the draft and send it to the NA.

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