Enterprisessss Difficulties Gradually Addressed

Recently the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) co-operated with ministries and relevant agencies to organise dialogues with enterprises to help them settle urgent issues and overcome difficulties. Those issues yet to be addressed will be gathered to submit to the Prime Minister in preparation for the 2005 annual meeting between the Prime Minister and enterprises due to be held in December 2005. Within the preparation, dialogues with enterprises on tax, customs, land, social insurance, wage and labour disputes have recently been held.

 

In September, dialogues with enterprises on enterprises’ urgent issues were organised in Northern and Southern Vietnam. A focus was given to issues relating to tax and customs, and land for production. At the dialogue meetings, ministries and relevant agencies reported the results of the settlement of proposals made by enterprises, which have been submitted to the Prime Minister in 2004. A review was made on those issues which have been settled and those yet to be addressed.

 

In a dialogue meeting with northern enterprises about land on September 30, 2005, the Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Dang Hung Vo said that the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment made great efforts to change policies to create more favourable conditions for enterprises’ investment and development. In particular in July, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment directly examined around 20 enterprises and gathered the comments and input of over 200 enterprises. The result shows that the outstanding issue is compensation for site clearance and resettlement. To this end, enterprises pay a lot of attention to questions about their responsibility and contribution. Vo admitted that there was a difference between taxation agencies and land users and enterprises had to pay high taxes but found it difficult to expand their operation. Vo promised that the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment would work with each side to minimise such a situation.

Regarding tax and customs Truong Chi Trung, deputy minister of finance, said that after the 2004 dialogue between the Prime Minister and enterprises, 302 issues and 86 proposals made by enterprises were completely settled by the General Department of Taxation, the General Department of Customs. By September, 2005, the taxation and customs services had organised dialogues with around 20,000 enterprises and addressed 95 per cent of the 5,000 questions asked by enterprises. In this year’s dialogue between the Ministry of Finance and enterprises, urgent issues of enterprises mainly concentrated on legal documents, many of which are not clear or detailed enough, leading to misunderstandings between enterprises and taxation and customs agencies, in particular in the implementation of import priorities lists and taxable prices.

 

Enterprises raised many questions about social insurance with the Ministry of Labour, War Invalid and Social Affairs and the Vietnam Labour Confederation. Most enterprises said that labourers, especially seasonal ones, should be allowed to pay social insurance on a voluntary basis. For seasonal labourers, who work for enterprises between four and five months and do not want to pay social insurance, enterprises cannot pay them a full wage plus social insurance contributions. However, if enterprises do not pay social insurance in cases of signing three months contracts with labourers, they will be considered in violation of the law by insurance agencies. Officials from the Ministry of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs, placed stress on social security with the Law on Social Insurance. There have yet to be any measures put in place to help enterprises settle their urgent issues regarding insurance. Management agencies have orientated enterprises’ attention to social security.

 

All issues raised by enterprises at dialogue meetings or sent to VCCI will be considered and settled by relevant authorised agencies. Ministries and agencies have agreed that all issues within their authority will be settled completely while VCCI will gather and submit issues which need the Prime Minister’s ideas and guidelines to the Prime Minister at the forthcoming annual dialogue meeting in December.

 

Thanks to the dialogue meeting with the Prime Minister in 2003, we have received land use certificates after four years. However, among many enterprises which faced the same problem, we have become the only enterprise to be granted these certificates. So, I would like to talk about the problem on behalf of many enterprises. Currently, enterprises have a certificate on land for long-term resident, but at the bottom of the certificate, there is a sentence ‘land within planned areas and should be recovered’. So, our great efforts to apply for ownership certificates are all in vain as we cannot use the certificate as a mortgage for bank loans because our land is planned and will therefore be recovered.

Furthermore, when we apply for construction permission, we receive an oral permission. As a result, local authorities fine us because we have no construction permission. They sometimes coerce us to destroy our works. I propose authorised agencies should take measures to prevent local governments’ violations.

 

Under the Article 108 of the Land Law and the Decree N⁰ 181/2004/ND- CP dated October 29, 2004 by the Prime Minister, enterprises have two options for paying land rent: annual payment or one time payment for the whole rent duration. The law also stipulates that after enterprises complete all procedures and send them to the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, within three days the department will be responsible for sending an announcement to the Department of Taxation. The Department of Taxation, in turn, will inform enterprises about their tax within five days. However, in reality we have to wait for a long time for this information, resulting in a postponement of our projects as the two departments complete procedures after months. I would like to ask whether these agencies violate the law or not and which measures the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment will apply in this case. I hope that authorised agencies will take measures to help us have an open environment for our investment and business.

 

Labourers of plants and enterprises mainly come from localities. They are farmers, who work for enterprises on a seasonal basis. Therefore, they do not have good understanding about industrial jobs. They work for enterprises when they have spare time between crops to earn their families extra incomes. As their work is seasonal, it is difficult for enterprises to address issues relating to their labour contracts. They say they do not want to sign contracts as they will return home to do farming work and their work with plants and enterprises is temporary. Enterprises sometimes have to agree with them.

Employers want to have a long term commitment from their workers. To that end, they have to understand what their workers want and try to meet their demand as much as possible. They want enterprises to pay for their social insurance, so they can use the money as they want. In fact, I think that money to be paid for workers’ social insurance should belong to them as they generate it with their labour, so we will pay them an amount equal to 30 per cent of their wage as stipulated by the State and how much they want to pay for social insurance should be decided by themselves.