Removing institutional obstacles, freeing up resources - Part 2: Waiting for news from ministries and branches that are "holding" many procedures

Implementing the Prime Minister's direction on cutting 30% of business conditions, 30% of processing time and 30% of administrative procedure compliance costs, ministries and branches are reviewing to remove barriers for businesses.

VCCI believes that the cosmetics industry is subject to many unnecessary and costly regulations from the Ministry of Health - Photo: QUANG DINH

According to the list of the Government Office , many ministries such as Health, Culture - Sports and Tourism, Education - Training, Agriculture and Environment, Industry and Trade and Finance are currently "holding" the largest number of administrative procedures.

Businesses hope procedures will soon be cut down

A petroleum business in Ho Chi Minh City said that it took several months to complete the procedures to convert to a franchise dealer model.

"Every time I think about paperwork, I shudder because it's too complicated and greatly affects business efficiency," a business representative lamented.

According to this business, due to the low discount rate, they want to switch to another supplier, which means changing their business license. However, the store is located in an area with administrative boundary changes, and the land documents were issued a long time ago, so when they submitted their application, it was returned with the reason "not qualified".

The application was submitted online, but was only accepted a week later, then returned without any explanation of the error. When the cause was discovered to be a change of address, the company had to add a confirmation paper and resubmit the application from the beginning, and it took a whole month to complete.

Not only that, when the documents are valid, the business continues to be "stuck" in fire prevention and fighting regulations because the store is located near a traffic infrastructure project. The business requested to be granted a temporary license for one year while the project is not yet completed, and committed to moving when there is a decision to reclaim the land. However, the point of sale still had to stop selling for many months, contacting all the authorities, from the fire department to the department of industry and trade, traffic, and construction to be granted a license to operate again.

Decree 80 (effective from November 17, 2023) is considered a step forward when it allows petroleum retailers to sign agency contracts with up to three sources instead of just one, helping to be more proactive in sourcing goods. However, the guiding circular (Circular 18) will not take effect until March 2025.

What worries businesses is that the conversion procedures under the new guidelines still run the risk of going through many doors, wasting time and money. "If the procedures remain as complicated as before, it will be very difficult for small businesses to survive," said a business representative.

Data: Ngoc An - Graphics: N.KH.

A series of cuts... waiting for a breakthrough

In the comments on the draft decision approving the plan to reduce and simplify administrative procedures related to production and business activities in 2025 of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, recently announced by VCCI, not only the petroleum sector but many other sectors under the management of this ministry are assessed as needing to continue to be reviewed for abolition and reduction.

In the gas sector, VCCI believes that conditions for LPG cylinder production are unnecessary, because these products must pass technical safety inspection and conformity certification before being circulated.

In trade promotion, the notification and registration procedures for promotions are considered as "disguised licensing", while promotions are a regular activity of businesses. The review mechanism is still lacking in transparency, with unclear criteria for approval or rejection, increasing legal risks and compliance costs.

Regarding e-commerce, VCCI proposed to completely abolish the procedure of notifying sales websites, and at the same time reduce the procedure for small-scale platforms to encourage online business.

In the health sector, where there are the largest number of administrative procedures, VCCI proposed removing the requirement to periodically test cosmetics every 6 months at the state testing system, a regulation considered unnecessary and costly.

Data: Ngoc An - Graphics: N.KH

At the same time, the current procedure for extending cosmetic declarations is similar to that for new declarations, which creates additional paperwork and causes backlogs in records. VCCI proposes to learn from ASEAN countries and apply an automatic renewal mechanism.

Similar to the culture, sports and tourism sector, VCCI believes that many regulations are not suitable for practice. For example, classifying "copyright and related rights consultancy and services" as a conditional business investment sector is not in accordance with the Investment Law 2020.

Or the regulations of the Provincial People's Committee to issue and adjust karaoke service business licenses do not demonstrate the spirit of cutting and saving costs for businesses.

These suggestions, according to VCCI, aim to substantially reform administrative procedures, reduce the burden on businesses, and contribute to improving the investment and business environment in 2025.

Mr. Dau Anh Tuan - Deputy General Secretary, Head of the Legal Department of VCCI - commented that the period of 2016-2018 was a period of strong reform when the Government implemented the Enterprise Law and Investment Law 2014, abolished a series of business conditions in ministerial circulars, simplified procedures and issued nearly 50 decrees, helping to significantly reduce time and costs for businesses.

However, after this period, the process of institutional reform and business environment showed signs of slowing down. Administrative procedures were still cumbersome, investment licensing, project approval, land access or dispute resolution were still prolonged due to ineffective coordination between agencies. In addition, inconsistent law enforcement between localities continued to cause difficulties for businesses.

According to Mr. Tuan, some ministries and branches still have old management thinking, so they are slow to innovate good management methods and approaches, such as shifting the focus to post-inspection instead of widespread pre-inspection and risk-based management.

Although Resolution 19 and Resolution 02 of the Government have repeatedly required specialized inspection of goods to be carried out according to risk levels, they have not yet been implemented.

The Deputy Secretary General of VCCI cited that many ministries and branches have issued circulars on technical standards and regulations that are being reflected as creating many costs and barriers for business investment activities. There are even cases where the circulars have been issued but no qualified testing labs have been designated, causing goods to be "stuck", such as with 5G equipment, not to mention some standards are still being abused...

Promote decentralization

Minister - Head of the Government Office Tran Van Son said that under the direction of the Government and the Prime Minister, in addition to cutting administrative procedures, ministries, branches and localities must promote decentralization and delegation of power according to the principle of "locality decides, locality does, locality takes responsibility", helping to shorten the process and create favorable conditions for businesses, in line with the arrangement of administrative units and the implementation of the 2-level local government organization model.

The Government also requested to reduce the list of specialized inspection goods, review and amend outdated, overlapping, and costly technical standards and regulations; at the same time, promote administrative procedures regardless of geographical boundaries, expand the "green channel" mechanism, "special investment procedures", and digitize the reporting regime for businesses.

The goal is that by 2028, Vietnam's investment and business environment will be among the top 3 countries in ASEAN and the top 30 countries in the world.

"The drastic cuts are expected to help create an open, transparent and competitive business environment, in line with the spirit of Resolution 68 of the Politburo on private economic development," said Mr. Tran Van Son.

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NGOC AN

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/go-vuong-mac-the-che-khoi-thong-nguon-luc-ky-2-ngong-tin-tu-bo-nganh-om-nhieu-thu-tuc-20251012083734656.htm