Recently, at the 13th Roundtable meeting between Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee leaders and the Japanese business community operating in the city, a series of problems related to administrative procedures, customs, tax, investment environment and other areas were raised by the Japan Businesses Association in Ho Chi Minh City (JBAH) to the leaders of the city.
Addressing the opening session, Mr Le Manh Ha, Vice Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City’s People’s Committee, said the city authorities must be aware of these difficulties and problems of the enterprise to give direction to remove them effectively. Mr Ha proposed: "Difficulties for enterprises are also a ‘knot’ in the investment environment of Ho Chi Minh City. Therefore, on behalf of the city government, I call businesses to express their concerns as well as their proposals to City authorities to review and take ultimate solutions."
Responding to the call of Mr Le Manh Ha, Mr Emura Yasuhisa, JBAH representative, stated pressing issues on Ho Chi Minh City which is customs officers harassing for commission percentage or making up informal statistics when businesses doing customs clearance for import and export, making it difficult for businesses. Mr Yasuhisa proposed the City authorities soon have positive move in the investigation and strictly penalize customs officials demanding bribes.
Responding to the pressing issues raised by Mr Emura Yasuhisa, Deputy Director Nguyen Huu Nghiep of Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department said that since 2000, City Customs Department has published a list of telephone numbers of the key leaders of the Department to directly receive and respond to concerns of businesses. However, according to his word, over the last 10 years, the City leaders have yet received any reflection about morality, acts of harassment, demanding money from customs officials. Mr Nghiep requested that Japanese firms provide the names of individuals or agencies demanding bribes, creating favourable conditions for the Customs Department of Ho Chi Minh City in dealing with the case.
Besides the problems in the field of customs, many other concerns like poor infrastructure in Ho Chi Minh City causing flooding; traffic congestion; looting and pickpocketing; and difficulties in recruiting personnel, are reflected by the Japanese firms in the meeting. Ho Chi Minh City leaders have received those concerns and been committed to directing related departments to overcome. In addition, the city will also set up a hotline 24/24 for foreign investors, thereby creating a separate channel to express frustrations without any fear of "intimidation" later. Vice Chairman Le Manh Ha said the city will ask the Ministry of Information and Communications to provide the hotline number with only 3 numbers; and assign the Investment and Trade Promotion Centre of Ho Chi Minh City (ITPC) as the lead agency responsible for receiving problems via the hotline and submit them to the Ho Chi Minh City’s People’s Committee.
In November 2014, Ho Chi Minh City attracted 370 new FDI projects totaling US$2.78 billion, increasing 194.6 percent compared to the same period last year; the capital of Japan in Ho Chi Minh City is 1/10 of the total FDI in the city. Mr Satoshi Nakajima, Japanese Consul General in Ho Chi Minh City said recently, a number of emerging economies in Southeast Asia is attracting strong wave of foreign investment, such as Thailand and Myanmar. This also caused Japanese investment in Vietnam in general and Ho Chi Minh City in particular to tend to shrink, lately. Mr Satoshi Nakajima recommended Vietnam pay more attention to the issue of improving the investment environment, administrative reform, creating an open and transparent investment environment to attract FDI investors in general and Japanese investors in particular to invest in Vietnam.
My Chau
Vietnamese
