Vietnam jumps 14 spots in World Bank’s Doing Business rankings

The World Bank’s report shows that business environment in Vietnam has been improved significantly. This year, Vietnam jumped 14 positions, compared to last year, to be ranked 68 out of 190 economies.

Vietnam has surpassed many other ASEAN nations to currently stand just behind Singapore, which ranked the second, Malaysia (24th), Thailand (26th) and Brunei (56th) in the global rankings.

According to the report, Vietnam and Indonesia have implemented the most reforms in the past 15 years, with 39 reforms each. Today, an entrepreneur in Ho Chi Minh City can spend only 22 days and 6.5 percent income per capita registering a new company, compared to 61 days and 31.9 percent in 2003.

Vietnam’s doing business score was also higher in criteria such as Getting Electricity, Getting Credit, Paying Taxes, Trading across Borders and Enforcing Contracts. However, the indicator in Registering property and Protecting minority investors have not shown any changes compared to last year.

However, Vietnam is not the only country in the region to move up in the Doing Business rankings. Indonesia also jumped 15 positions, indicating that Vietnam must do more to facilitate businesses in the country and avoid lagging behind in the coming years.

This year’s survey of the World Bank evaluated 190 economies in the world basing on 10 indicators including 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. The business environment in Vietnam is highly appreciated by international organizations thanks to the government’s policy reforms.

Business reforms continued at speed in East Asia and Pacific, with regional economies adopting 45 reforms during the past year, bringing to 371 the total number of private sector reforms enacted in the region over the past 15 years, says the World Bank Group’s latest Doing Business report, which monitors the ease of doing business for small and medium enterprises around the world.

“In the past 15 years, the East Asia and Pacific region has made significant progress in enabling entrepreneurship. As the reform momentum continues building up in the region, those economies which lag behind have the opportunity to learn from the good practices adopted by their neighbors,” said Rita Ramalho, Acting Director of the World Bank’s Global Indicators Group.