Customs officials check imported goods at Coc Nam Custom Sub-Department in the Lang Son border area. (Source: VNA)Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Prime Minister Nguyen XuanPhuc has asked ministries and sectors to review and submit their plans to cut50 percent of their business conditions before August 15.
This deadline is earlier than the previouscut-off date of October 30 as stipulated in a Government resolution datedJanuary 1.
The plans must include procedures to remove orsimplify regulations on at least half of the goods which are required toundergo special inspection. Each imported or exported product should be managedby a ministry or equivalent unit.
The management method may be changed frompre-check to after-check based on risk management and compliance with laws andregulations of organisations and individuals. Not every cargo will be subjectto inspection, excluding those which are subjected to special quarantine.
The PM strictly prohibits ministries, agenciesand people’s committees from setting business conditions and inspectionprocedures which are contradictory to laws.
Ministries and ministerial-level agencies in thecourse of project formulation or drafting of legal documents shall have toensure rules are clear and easy to understand and implement. These should notcreate barriers to enter markets and should not force enterprises to incurcosts.
The Ministry of Justice and the GovernmentalOffice take responsibility for verifying legal documents that involveregulations and lists of goods that require special inspections. They will haveto make timely reports to authorities to prevent the issuance of regulationsthat could increase firms’ costs.
Vu Tien Loc, Chairman of the Vietnam Chamber ofCommerce and Industry (VCCI), agreed that there were big shortcomings inspecial inspections. Only 6 percent of products were removed from the specialinspection list. The average inspection time was 76 hours per procedure, threetimes higher than the average level in ASEAN-4 countries, even after reforms.
Loc also said most reform plans simply reviewedand supplemented business regulations in current decrees, while there remainmany unsuitable business conditions which should be removed or amended.
Ministries are required to report on the numberand list of goods under special inspection as well as business conditionsquarterly. Each quarter, they must explain whether business regulations haveincreased or fallen.
In addition, the PM asked ministries andagencies to announce the results of administrative procedure simplification andeconomic benefits after the removal.
The Ministry of Planning and Investment in cooperationwith other ministries will review conditions to announce on the nationalinformation portal on business registration.
Earlier, on July 13, Minister - Chairman of the GovernmentOffice Mai Tien Dung said the reforms have been slower than the Prime Ministerrequested.
There are still delays in implementing specificsolutions to simplify administrative procedures and improve the businessenvironment in ministries and agencies.
According to VCCI, as of June 20, only theMinistry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) had issued a decree guiding thecutting of business conditions under its management, while other ministriessuch as the Ministries of Agriculture and Rural Development, Construction,Finance, Health and Natural Resources and Environment are still building theplans.
Specifically, the MoIT submitted a decree to cut675 regulations out of a total of 1,200. The Ministry of Health submitted adecree on alternative food safety management, reducing the amount of importedcargo subject to food safety inspection by 95 percent.
Throughout the VCCI’s survey, many businessesexpressed that some proposals to reduce and simplify business conditions do notmake much sense for businesses and their effect is negligible.
For example, most conditions relating topersonal identity such as ‘have civil act capacity’ are proposed to beabolished. In fact, this condition does not have any effect because businessesonly recruit people who have full civil act capacity.
Recently, seven associations including the VietnamAssociation of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), Food and FoodstuffAssociation of HCM City, Vietnam Dairy Association, Food TransparencyAssociation, Phu Quoc Fish Sauce Producing Association, American Chamber ofCommerce in Vietnam and the European Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam sentrecommendations related to the State management of product and service qualityconcerning the sector of health and healthcare, agriculture, science andtechnology to the Government.
The VCCI recommends within each ministry,ministers do not authorise departments that perform licensing to be the leadagency in drafting the administrative reform plan as these agencies will wantto retain their power. The reform provisions should be assigned to independentunits, responsible to ministers and consult with other relevant agencies.-VNS/VNA
VNA
