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The conference.

Electronics and paper in parallel

Speaking at the Conference to deploy the key tasks of administrative reform of MARD on the morning of July 26, held in Hai Phong, Ngo Hong Giang, Deputy Director of the Organization and Personnel Department (MARD) said: “The review, abolition and simplification of regulations on business conditions in the agricultural sector are considered as one of the priorities of the MARD.”

Accordingly, the agricultural sector has 272 business conditions; of which, 115 business conditions were abolished and 136 business conditions were simplified.

In addition, the Ministry continues to review the issuance of administrative procedures to ensure compliance with the provisions of the law on the promulgation of legal documents and laws on the control of administrative procedures.

Specifically, the Ministry has reviewed 594 documents under the authority of the Ministry and the General Departments, Departments in 11 fields from 2017 to March 2019; abolishing 2 documents guiding the administrative procedures in the field of cultivation; reviewing and evaluating 83 administrative procedures, proposing to reduce and simplifying 36 out of 83 administrative procedures.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Ha Cong Tuan said never before has administrative reform been implemented so strongly by the Ministry, especially in institutional reform and business environment improvement.

“In a short time, units have reviewed, reduced and simplified 50% of business conditions; cut down and simplified 50% of administrative procedures for specialized inspection and 70% of the list of goods subject to specialized inspection; changed the test method from pre-check to post-check for many products.”

Emphasizing the administrative reform, especially the implementation of online public services and the National Single Window with significant results, but from the perspective of implementing agencies, Nguyen Quy Duong, Deputy Director of Plant Protection Department (MARD) said the current shortcoming is that the Department has just carried out the electronic version but still has to sign on paper.

“The procedures and licenses are deployed electronically, but businesses still require issuing a paper copy because many other agencies and units do not accept the electronic version. For example, when issuing an e-plant quarantine certificate to enterprises, the Plant Protection Department still has to issue additional paper copies. I suggest that there should have synchronization so units and agencies outside the ministry accept the electronic version,” Mr. Duong said.

About this issue, Deputy Minister Ha Cong Tuan stated: “The Government has seen clearly inadequacies. The Prime Minister issued Decision No. 28/2018/QD-TTg on sending and receiving electronic documents among agencies in the state units, citing contents of electronic signatures are equal to hard copy. However, there are still problems in signing. Early next week, the Working Group of the Government will meet to solve this problem.”

Comprehensive reform of specialized inspection

About the administrative reform in the second half of the year, Mr. Giang stated: the MARD is determined to continue to prioritize the development of a set of standards for goods subject to specialized inspection, which will build a set of 142 Vietnamese Standards and another set of 3 Vietnamese Standards.

Continue to promote institutional reforms, improve the quality of legal documents, ensure the legality, consistency, feasibility of the document system on schedule, and ensure quality.

"The key task is to continue to solve administrative problems to reduce problems for businesses, because despite achieving many positive results, there are still some difficulties," Deputy Minister Tuan said.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development identifies specialized inspection as one of the areas that will undergo comprehensive reform in the future. Photo: T. Binh.

In addition, according to Deputy Minister Ha Cong Tuan, in the future, the Ministry will continue to strictly control the development and promulgation of decrees and circulars detailing the implementation of the Law on Livestock and the Law on Cultivation, which have administrative procedures and conditions for business investment and specialized inspection products. Ensure these regulations are clear, easy to understand, easy to implement, do not create barriers to market entry, and do not raise costs for businesses.

In addition, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development also continued to implement comprehensive reforms of specialized management and work; apply risk management principles based on assessment and analysis of the compliance level of enterprises, the level and scale of risks of goods; focus on post-inspection, which is mainly implemented at the stage of goods circulation in the domestic market.

Administrative reform: Need for consensus, participation of enterprises

"In the future, it is necessary to strongly implement e-Government, set standards and publicize the results of receiving and handling petitions of people and businesses, ensuring all opinions of people and businesses are sent and received electronically,” Deputy Minister Ha Cong Tuan said.