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| Workers at the Shirt and Suit Factory of Garment Corporation 10 in Long Bien district, Hanoi__Photo: VNA |
The Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) submitted its written comments to the Ministry of Justice assessing the draft Prime Minister’s Decision approving the Program on inter-sectoral legal support for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), business households, and cooperatives during 2026-2030. While recognizing the draft’s comprehensive approach, VCCI recommended several adjustments to ensure the program can effectively meet the business community’s growing demand for legal assistance.
According to VCCI, the Ministry of Finance should lead and coordinate tasks related to funding and develop mechanisms to provide free legal consultancy services, particularly in high-demand areas such as tax and customs.
VCCI stressed the need for targeted support policies to encourage business households to transition into enterprises. With the abolition of the lump-sum tax regime starting January 1, 2026, value-added tax and personal income tax are likely to become major concerns for many households.
Because business households lack strong representative organizations comparable to enterprises or cooperatives, VCCI emphasized assigning clearer responsibility to the Ministry of Finance to work closely with tax authorities and local administrations in supporting this vulnerable group.
Funding mechanism still too vague, risks limiting feasibility
The draft encourages mobilizing resources from non-state organizations, such as associations and business representative bodies. VCCI argued that this principle remains too general and does not resolve the long-standing “bottleneck” of insufficient financial resources.
In practice, requiring these organizations to independently mobilize funding to implement tasks assigned by the Prime Minister is unrealistic, especially for activities expected to commence as early as 2026.
VCCI therefore recommended that focal units designated to perform tasks should also receive partial state budget allocations to carry out essential activities. Funding should be granted based on proposals from these units and processed through a transparent and reasonable mechanism.
Ambitious targets require clearer monitoring and evaluation
The draft program sets out several ambitious quantitative targets, including reviewing and improving 100 percent of relevant policies; ensuring 80 percent of SMEs and business households can access basic legal information; achieving a 90-percent satisfaction rate among participants in legal training; and effectively piloting free legal consultancy mechanisms for micro-enterprises.
However, VCCI noted that the draft lacks specific principles or methods to objectively assess and monitor progress toward these indicators. VCCI proposed adding a transparent inspection and evaluation mechanism to ensure that the targets are realistically achievable rather than merely aspirational.
To better align the program with practical needs, VCCI suggested that business representative organizations should not only act as coordinating bodies but also participate directly in, and even lead, efforts to review legal obstacles faced by enterprises. This approach, VCCI argued, would make the protection of member interests more objective and grounded in actual business experience.
VCCI also recommended developing online repositories of legal materials and resources, such as digital manuals and handbooks, to facilitate easier access for enterprises. Regarding dialogue mechanisms, VCCI proposed adding provisions for direct meetings between representative organizations, enterprises, and state agencies to resolve urgent legal issues.- (VLLF)
