Vietnam must end unequal treatment of businesses, crack down on rampant corruption and speed up reform of its legal system or risk driving away investment, business representatives and donors told a forum yesterday.
More than 350 representatives to the Vietnam Business Forum held in Hanoi ahead of a key donors' meeting said the communist country has made good progress in transforming itself into a "socialist-oriented market economy," but said some reforms have stalled.
"There is some impatience with the speed of reform," Klaus Rohland, the World Bank country director, told the forum. "But no one can question [Vietnam's] commitment to reform."
Rohland said too many decisions are still made with little transparence, and foreign and private companies still face discrimination compared to state-owned enterprises.
"Give us a level playing field.... The economy will only grow if the private sector grows," Rohland said.
Several representatives of the business community named corruption as the largest problem in doing business in Vietnam, which was recently named the third most graft-ridden country in Asia by the advocacy group Transparency International.
However, a government official at the forum brushed off a suggestion that Vietnam set up an independent corruption commission, along the lines of an existing model in Hong Kong.
"The possibility of establishing an independent commission has been discussed repeatedly, but there is already an agency for fighting corruption.... This is the responsibility of the State Inspection Board," Dinh Duy Hoe, the deputy director of administrative reform in the Ministry of Internal Affairs said.
Corruption scandals continue to plague Vietnam, despite a decade of anti-graft campaigns and repeated vows that no high official will be spared.
Yesterday's business forum took place on the eve of the annual two-day Consultative Group meeting between international donors and government representatives.
Donors will announce their pledges to Vietnam for 2003 this week and assess Vietnam's transition from a centralized economy to a market-oriented economy.
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