Switzerland, Norway and the United Nations will provide an additional $12.6 million to support Vietnam to reform its business registration, the state-run Vietnam News Agency said. Vietnamese Ministry of Planning and Investment (MoPI), the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) and the UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) signed loan agreements in Hanoi on Oct 29. Of the funding, which will be go to the second and the third phases of a project to provide technical assistance to business registration reform in Vietnam, $6.6 million is sourced from SECO, $4.5 million from NORAD and the rest from UNIDO. Speaking at the signing ceremony, MoPI’s Deputy Minister Nguyen Van Trung said business registration reform is expected to help cut costs and time for completing business registration, tax, statistic and seal procedures. The Swiss Ambassador to Vietnam, Jean-Hubert Lebet, said the project is designed to assist the private sector to improve transparency and facilitate the full implementation of Enterprise Law and corporate governance. The project was launched in November, 2008 and its first phase was completed in September, 2010. It aims to provide policy and technical advice towards the achievement of nationwide business registration reform. Earlier, many foreign companies complain that they have to spend longer time on completing complicated administrative procedures to start a new business in Vietnam than other countries in the world. (www.vietnamplus.vn [1] Oct 29, Dau tu – Investment Nov 01, p2)
