To enable the economy to keep pace with the reforms

In 2025 alone, the National Assembly passed 89 laws. If we add up the two years from 2024-2025, the total number of laws amended or newly enacted reaches 120, more than the previous eight years combined.

Those numbers are enough to set a legislative record. But what's more noteworthy isn't the number of laws enacted, but the shift in legislative thinking taking place behind them.

From management to innovation

In the opening remarks of his presentation on the 2025 Business Law Flow Report, Mr. Dau Anh Tuan, Deputy Secretary General and Head of the Legal Department of VCCI, did not dwell much on legislative figures but instead focused on a shift in mindset: from "management" to "creation".

One of the key messages emphasized was the need to "decisively abandon the mindset of banning what cannot be managed." Few phrases better capture the transformation of Vietnam's institutional system over the past year.

It is no coincidence that VCCI begins its report with the statement: "Institutions are the breakthrough of breakthroughs." According to VCCI, a significant part of the more than 8% growth target for 2025 comes from efforts to reform institutions, improve the investment and business environment, and promote the private sector .

This shows that institutions are no longer seen as an internal affair of the state administrative apparatus, but are gradually becoming an important resource for development, no less important than capital, technology, or infrastructure.

Behind Resolution 57 on science, technology and innovation, Resolution 59 on international integration, Resolution 66 on reforming the work of drafting and implementing laws, and Resolution 68 on the development of the private economy lies a joint effort to expand the development space instead of focusing solely on risk control.

Up to 70.5% of businesses have never participated in providing feedback on draft legal documents at the central level, and approximately 93% of businesses said they could not anticipate upcoming policy changes. Photo: Hoang Ha

While previously the focus was on strict management, now the focus is gradually shifting towards creating conditions for innovation, investment, and the emergence of new growth drivers.

If we had to find a symbolic change that embodies the spirit of reform in 2025, it would most likely be Resolution 206.

For the first time, the government has been given the mechanism to immediately address legal bottlenecks instead of having to wait for law amendments.

In less than eight months, 15 resolutions have been issued following a "resolve issues first, amend laws later" approach, demonstrating the system's attempt to respond more quickly to problems arising from practice.

89 laws were passed by the National Assembly in one year. The percentage of documents drafted through expedited procedures increased to 43%.

However, the faster the pace of reform, the more pressing another question becomes: can the system absorb that speed of change?

According to VCCI data, approximately 82% of guiding documents were recorded as delayed or not yet issued. Only about 17% were issued on time. Meanwhile, up to 70.5% of businesses have never participated in providing feedback on draft legal documents at the central level, and about 93% of businesses said they could not anticipate upcoming policy changes.

The paradox lies in the fact that while the legal system is changing at an unprecedented pace, the majority of businesses remain outside the process of shaping these changes, leaving a significant gap between policymakers and those who implement them.

When reform encounters managerial inertia.

Perhaps the most thought-provoking part of the report lies in what VCCI calls: "The 2025 Paradox: The Conflicting Mindset and Ingrained Management Habits."

While regulators are constantly trying to remove old bottlenecks, new obstacles continue to emerge elsewhere, as if the inertia of management is running parallel to reform efforts.

The Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) describes this situation with a rather blunt image: "The right hand removes business regulations, the left hand adds new barriers."

Perhaps no image more accurately describes the current state of institutional reform.

Although online procedures are positively evaluated by businesses, nearly 38% still report having to pay unofficial fees, and about a quarter have had to delay or cancel business plans due to licensing issues.

Those figures reiterate a familiar reality: regulations can be amended very quickly, but translating those changes on paper into real-world changes is a completely different story.

Another finding from VCCI is also worth considering.

Out of more than 2,000 complaints and suggestions reviewed nationwide, only about 787 cases were identified as genuine problems requiring resolution.

Notably, 42% stem from unclear or ambiguous regulations, 36% from unnecessary compliance costs, and 22% from overlaps in legal documents.

It is worth noting that these obstacles do not reflect a shortage of laws, but rather a gap between the logic of lawmakers and the practical operations of businesses.

Therefore, institutional reform, from VCCI's perspective, does not stop at amending specific clauses, but also involves efforts to narrow the gap between what is written in the documents and what is actually happening in the market.

Behind every legal hurdle may lie a business on hold, a stalled project, an investment yet to be disbursed, or simply a business opportunity quietly slipping away.

From that perspective, the most memorable aspect of 2025 is perhaps not the 89 laws passed, but rather Vietnam's beginning to experiment with a new approach: making institutions more responsive to evolving realities.

After years of complaining about the slow pace of system change, the question now is no longer whether there will be reforms, but whether the system, businesses, and the entire economy can keep up with the pace of those reforms.

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/de-nen-kinh-te-theo-kip-toc-do-cai-cach-2522123.html