Reform must be measured by the feelings of the people and businesses

This is the assessment of Mr. Mac Quoc Anh - Member of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, Vice Chairman cum General Secretary of the Hanoi Association of Small and Medium Enterprises - on the determination to cut procedures and business conditions for businesses.

Sir, recently Prime Minister Le Minh Hung requested that before April 20, ministries must propose plans to cut and reform administrative procedures... How do you assess the determination to reform this time?

- This is a reform phase with a very high level of decisiveness, even considered one of the strongest reform signals in recent years. The difference is not only in the general call, but in the fact that Prime Minister Le Minh Hung directly chaired the meeting on April 13, setting a very short deadline of before April 20, this is a sign of an action campaign, no longer a reform slogan.

The determination to reform has been placed in a unified direction framework from the Central Government to the Government. Conclusion No. 18-KL/TW dated April 2, 2026 of the 2nd Plenum of the 14th Central Committee and Resolution 89/NQ-CP dated April 5, 2026 have created a very clear "political - legal - operating axis"; meaning that there is not only political will, but also general targets, focal points, review mechanisms and personal responsibility requirements of ministers.

However, the business community will not only look at the number of procedures cut, but also at the quality changes. Successful reform is not about removing one license but generating another confirmation; it is not about putting procedures online but still forcing businesses to submit paper applications and go back and forth directly. When businesses feel "less asking, less waiting, less costing", when the press can see the results with data and real stories, then the belief in reform will be truly sustainably strengthened.

According to you, what changes will the review and further reduction of 30% of conditional business lines currently and the simultaneous reduction of 100% of unnecessary business conditions create for the investment and business environment in Vietnam?

- If the spirit of substantive reform is properly implemented, cutting about 60 conditional business lines and eliminating all unnecessary business conditions will create a very large change for the investment and business environment in Vietnam. The first impact is to significantly reduce barriers to market entry. For large enterprises, each license may only be a management cost; but for small and medium-sized enterprises, startups, and business households transforming into enterprises, it is often a "fixed cost" large enough to make them flinch.

Second, directly reduce compliance costs and opportunity costs. When businesses reduce the time spent running procedures, they have more resources for production, technology innovation, market development and job creation.

Third, to make the business environment cleaner and narrow the space of the "ask-give" mechanism. In fact, informal costs often arise most strongly where business conditions are vague, procedures are overlapping, and the right to explain lies too much in the implementation stage.

To make reform substantive, according to you, what kind of monitoring mechanism is needed to assess the responsibility of heads of ministries and sectors?

- To make reform substantive, it is necessary to shift from the thinking of "doing" to the thinking of "making measurable results" and therefore the mechanism for monitoring the responsibility of heads must be designed according to very clear principles: Assigning quantitative goals, publicizing results in real time, with independent verification and directly linked to cadre evaluation. In particular, there needs to be an independent monitoring mechanism from outside the ministry and sector system. It is impossible to let the agency issuing the procedures simultaneously self-assess the effectiveness of their own cuts without independent verification. It is necessary to establish a portal for reflection and constant comparison of enterprises, linked to each specific procedure.

Reform is only substantive when people and businesses clearly feel: faster procedures, lower costs, less trouble. If that is not achieved, even beautiful reports cannot be considered successful.

Thank you, sir!

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