Vietnam Tax Department Using International Aid To Improve Tax Systems

by Mary Swire, Tax-News.com, Hong Kong

03 September 2008

The State Bank of Vietnam has announced this week that it is collaborating with the Vietnam Industrial and Commercial Bank (Vietinbank) to distribute international aid worth USD85m to the country's tax department to help them modernize their systems.

Of the overall USD85m, USD80m is being funded by the World Bank, with the balance provided by the Japanese Government.

The Vietnamese government and the World Bank met back in March to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the aid.

Just last month, several other modernisation initiatives within the country were announced, with news of a three year project to streamline the registration process for new businesses in Vietnam officially launched in August by the Ministry for Planning and Investment, the UN's Industrial Development Organisation, and the Norwegian Embassy.

The USD8.9mn project is aimed at simplifying all business, tax and reporting procedures, thereby reducing costs for new businesses, by including all relevant pre-registration and registration requirements on one application form.

The project will be administered by the MPI's Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Development, working in tandem with the Tax Department in the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Public Security, and 63 provincial business registration offices.

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