GERMAN BUSINESS ASSOCIATION ATTENDED THE HIGH-LEVEL CONFERENCE WITH PRIME MINSTER PHAM MINH CHINH
Hanoi, 22 April – GBA Co-Chairman Mr. Torben Minko, GBA Board Member/ EuroCham Delegate Mr. Alexander Ziehe and Ingo Brandenburg together with GBA members (Adidas, a.hartrodt, Berlin Love Vietnam, Bosch, Enertrag, Lufthansa Group, Siemens, Von Ardenne and Würth Vietnam) were honored to attend the high-level conference with Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh at the Government Office Headquarters in Hanoi.
The conference was attended by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, Deputy Prime Ministers Le Minh Khai and Tran Luu Quang, several ministers, and 180 representatives from foreign businesses and investment associations in Vietnam. The conference was also connected online to 63 other locations across the country, with the participation of local government leaders and relevant departments.
During the conference, we addressed the current trigger points that many of our members have stressed to us and proposed the following solutions directly to the Prime Minister to improve the local investment environment to boost the Vietnamese economy in the upcoming time:
1) Simplifying, digitalizing, and streamlining administrative procedures, in particular in the areas of customs, cross border finance and operations. Our members face daily challenges in these areas resulting in delays, avoidable costs, and slowdown of business activities. Some examples are red tape on promotions that involve discounts, VAT refunds, customs clearance.
2) Eliminate local testing requirements for European Certified products along all sectors to foster free trade with the European Union and easier imports of needed goods and machinery. This would include the end of conformity declarations for EU certified products.
3) Further easing licensing, work permits and visa. More specifically we recommend revising Article 17. Point 20 and Appendix 1. Item A of Decree No 31/2021/NĐ-CP dated Mar 26, 2021, on Elaboration of the Law on Investment, by opening prohibited sectors for foreign investments, including cross-border trading and temporary import-export trading to enable foreign businesses in further expanding in Vietnam.
4) Create further tax incentives and consumption stimulus packages in preferred sectors in line with the long-term strategies of the Vietnamese government, for example in the area of green economy.
Last but not least, on behalf of the German business community in Vietnam, we also expressed our appreciation to the Government’s proactive efforts in addressing challenges faced by foreign investors in their daily business operations.
