Private sector pays 29% of budget

Private companies are contributing increasingly to the country’s economic development, enhancing competitiveness and helping reduce the monopoly of State-owned companies.

Private companies contrib-uted 29 per cent of the State budget in the form of taxes now compared to 18 per cent in 2006, Thoi Bao Tai Chinh Viet Nam (Vietnam Financial Times) newspaper reported.

They also created more jobs than State-owned companies.

Pham Viet Muon, deputy head of the Government Office and deputy head of the Committee for State-owned Enterprises Renewal and Development, said the devel-opment model in advanced countries had proved that the private sector was very important for economic growth.

The Government needed to provide opportunities for the private sector to invest more in infrastructure, education and other key sectors, he added.

Pham Thu Hang, head of the Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Enterprises Development Foundation, said though the Government had been trying to tweak the legal system to ensure all companies were equal before the law, private companies still remained at a disadvantage when trying to obtain raw materials, markets, capital, and especially land.

Around 90 per cent of State-owned companies are allocated land for their business while 51 per cent of private businesses have to use their owners’ houses and another 31 per cent have to rent their premises, according to the Enterprises Development Foundation.

Phung Anh Tuan, deputy chairman of the HCM City Young Entrepreneurs Assoc-iation, said to create a level playing field for private and State-owned companies, the legal system had to be amended and new regulations issued. — VNS

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