An economist from United States Agency for International Development (USAID) said Vietnam's GNI per capital should be USD7,000, but that ineffective management has hindered Vietnam's growth.

Workers at Binh Duong Industrial Park

A report from the World Bank, called "Doing Business 2014" indicates that Vietnam's GNI per capita is currently USD1,400. Olin McGill from USAID said Vietnam's GNI per capital should be around USD7,000 but the actual figure is lower because of weak management and cumbersome administrative procedures. According to him, the longest time it should take to pay taxes is 300 hours, yet firms in Vietnam have to spend an average of over 800 hours.

The time necessary to comply with all required procedures to export goods across the border is about 21 days. According to McGill, this amount of time is too long and increases the cost of trade. He added that, if the now separate processes for business and tax registration were to be merged, it would save a large amount of money for businesses.

Nguyen Dinh Cung, Acting Head of the Central Institute for Economic Management agreed, commenting that, if the time it takes to export were reduced, Vietnam's GDP could see an increase 30%.

Despite a weak business environment compared to neighbouring countries such as Thailand and Malaysia, foreign development investment into Vietnam has remained stable. Le Cao Doan from the Vietnam Institute of Economics said, "It may behoove enterprises to lobby the authorities to alter business policy to create a more hospitable economic climate."

As an example, Doan pointed out that that investments were being poured into the Formosa steel project in Ha Tinh Province even though Vietnam has a high levels of inventory of steel and the real estate market has not recovered.

He said, "Some enterprises also take advantage of our weak management to evade taxes. In the end, we will gain nothing but pollution and outdated technology without the proper reforms."