Institutional reform and improving the business environment reflect the Government's enduring determination over the years, benefiting people and businesses. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh at a conference to review the work of the industry and trade sector in 2020. Mr. Nguyen Quoc Dung, Head of Business Department, Electricity Vietnam group (EVN) still remembers the bad feeling of a few years ago. At that time, the electricity access index of Vietnam ranked 156 out of 170, the lowest in the world. “I was shocked and didn't understand why. We tried to do well but were underestimated by the world,” recalled Dung. After doing research, he discovered that EVN had long been ignoring global standards. "We no longer compared ourselves with ourselves anymore but compared ourselves to the world to know who we are, where we are." That approach was supported by EVN's leaders and implemented for the whole system. As a result, the electricity access index reached 27/190 countries ranked by the World Bank. The remarkable rise of EVN and some other areas was thanks to the Government's steadfast determination through Resolution 19, now Resolution 02, which put pressure on ministries, sectors and local governments. It was a long process of awareness improvement. In 2009, American professor Michael Porter was invited to help Vietnam build international standards for business environment assessment. However, a Government leader at that time did not agree when saying that Vietnam must build its own set of criteria. The director of the Central Institute for Economic Management, Nguyen Dinh Cung, who was assigned to draft the criteria, was completely stuck. "Three or four years passed and we could not do anything about it," he recalled. Only when Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam received that task and asked to use international standards (because Vietnam did not have methodology and data) was the content of …
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