Work needed to improve quality of legal documents
Hanoi (VNA) - Measures must be taken to improve the quality of Vietnam’s
legal documents, said policy researchers and businesses at a conference on October 17 in Hanoi.
Participants urged policymakers to improve feasibility, logic
and consistency to avoid half-baked regulations that unnecessarily complicated
business operations or even contradicted existing laws.
A major sticking point in the process of policy-making has been a lack of
transparency and feedback from parties that are affected by
those policies, said legal experts. As a result, many legal documents were
produced without a comprehensive evaluation of the potential socio-economic
impacts they could have.
“The quality of legal documents has a significant impact in
strengthening businesses’ ability to compete, along with consumer experience,”
said Dau Anh Tuan, head of the legal department under the Vietnam
Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), the conference’s organiser.
“Policymakers must aim to remove legal barriers on market
integration, to ensure trade liberalisation and to fight the influence of
interest groups,” Tuan said.
“Compiling documents which impact the entire society and
business sector must not be fast-tracked, and must gather feedback from all
affected parties.”
Mark Grillin, head of the Vietnam Business Forum’s tax and
customs working group, said policymakers’ first priority in drafting a legal
document is to identify its objectives.
Contingencies and alternatives should be carefully studied to maximise effectiveness.
They must work together with affected parties to ensure a
good understanding of how legal document would impact their activities. Close
cooperation between policymakers and affected parties will help to
produce policies that do not favour certain groups at the expense of
everyone else.
The list of affected parties must also be expanded to include
other stakeholders in supply chains and supporting industries, not just primary
players.
The transparency of tax-related legal documents is a matter of
utmost importance, said Nguyen Tien Vy, vice-president
of the Vietnam Beer and Beverage Association.
Vy quoted a study conducted by the Central
Institute of Economic Management that showed a change in the country’s tax law
would affect not just the beverage industry but also its 21 supporting
industries and millions of consumers.
Below-par legal documents are also a hurdle
to overcome as the country pushes for further integration into the global
economy with numerous international trade agreements./.