An official of Bac Ninh Province's public services centre provides instructions to citizens. (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnamis entering the third wave of reforms, with the goal of slashing at least 20 percentof business regulations in the next five years, said Minister-Chairman of theGovernment Office Mai Tien Dung.
Dung recently said that theGovernment’s business regulation reform programme in 2020-2025 was the largestand most comprehensive yet, demonstrating the Government’s determination toimprove the business environment to drive development.
The recently-announcedprogramme to implement Government Resolution No 68/NQ-CP dated May 12aimed to remove and simplify at least 20 percent of business regulationsand cut at least a fifth of compliance costs.
The programme also focused onpreventing the new issuance of unnecessary, unreasonable and illegalregulations and those causing more difficulties for businesses, whileremoving inconsistencies and overlaps in business regulations.
Dung said the Governmentattached special attention to institutional reform and building e-Government tocreate favourable conditions for businesses and citizens.
In 2007-2010, Vietnam cut orsimplified 4,818 out of 5,421 administrative procedures, which helped savenearly 30 trillion VND (1.3 billion USD) per year, which was an impressivefigure, he said.
More than 3,890 out of 6,191business prerequisites and 6,776 out of 9,926 product categories subject tocustoms checks were removed and simplified in 2016-20, saving 18 millionworking days per year, equivalent to 6.3 trillion VND.
Dung, however, noted thatreforms remained slow and some deregulation did not aid firms but broughtmore difficulties.
He stressed that there was alot of room for growth by carrying out efficient reforms.
According to the Chairman ofthe Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) Vu Tien Loc, theGovernment's Resolution No 68 was regarded as the third wave of reforms out inthe past five years.
The first wave started in 2016with thousands of sub-licences eliminated. The second wave was removing andsimplifying hald of business prerequisites and product lines for customs checks.
In the third wave of reforms,inconsistencies and overlaps in business regulations were expected to be wipedout, Loc said.
The VCCI’s findings showed thatthe percentage of firms which must apply for licences for their businessoperation had reduced from 58 percent to 48 percent. Loc said that this was notjust a matter of money or time but also the confidence of business.
Resolution 68 would triggermore comprehensive reforms to tackle existing problems in the business legalsystem and hasten reforms of management agencies at all levels, he said, stressingthat listening to businesses were essential.
President of the Association ofSmall and Medium-Sized Enterprises Nguyen Van Than also said that drasticmeasures must be taken to achieve deregulation goals set inResolution 68.
According to Dung, to implementthe reform programme effectively, the focus would be placed on accelerating theelectronic handling of administrative procedures, especially with theimplementation of a digitalisation plan for handling administrative procedures.
The transition from paper-basedmanagement to digital-based would be pushed, aiming to create the bestconditions for businesses and to cut costs.
Businesses and citizens wouldplay a role in supervising and evaluating the reform process, Dung said./.
VNA
