Businesses expect efficiency of National Single Window to be improved

	Information shared on National Single Window should be covered by focal point
	Customs consults ministries and government agencies on a list of information exchanged via the National Single Window
	The satisfaction of organizations and individuals is a measure of the effectiveness of handling the Ministry of Finance's administrative procedures

National Single Window Portal

Businesses have still faced difficulties in carrying out some procedures

According to Ms. Nguyen Thi Cuc, Chairman of the Vietnam Tax Consultants' Association (VTCA), through the newly published report, it can be seen that businesses in 2022 said that the implementation of procedures on the National Single Window Portal are more difficult than the 2019 survey with 10 of 12 procedures.

This can be explained because from January 2020 until the end of the first quarter of 2022, Vietnam was severely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and the social distancing policy was applied nationwide, the implementation of administrative procedures in general, including import and export procedures, was also greatly affected.

Although there are still many shortcomings, it must be acknowledged that the reform of the sectors has had many positive changes from 2019. However, compared with the requirements of the Government, the Ministry of Finance, and the General Department of Customs, the actual implementation is still behind the target.

A survey recently published by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) stated that the implementation of administrative procedures on the National Single Window Portal has seen many positives, but they have still faced difficulties in carrying out some procedures.

The survey focused on 12 administrative procedures on the National Single Window Portal with the highest frequency of businesses, including three administrative procedures of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD); two administrative procedures of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Ministry of Transport and Ministry of Health and one administrative procedure of the Ministry of Science and Technology.

The survey results showed that the percentage of enterprises that easily carry out procedures is relatively different and in the range of 45% - 81%.

The level of convenience in implementing administrative procedures is concentrated by groups of ministries and sectors. Procedures under the authority of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (granting phytosanitary certificates for import, transit and inland transportation; registering inspection and certification of quality of imported animal feed and granting quarantine certificates for imported terrestrial animals and animal products) and the Ministry of Industry and Trade (granting preferential certificates of origin and import/export permit of industrial precursors) are assessed as easy/relatively easy.

Meanwhile, procedures under the Ministry of Health (Issuing import permits of medical equipment and issuing numbers to receive the announcement of imported cosmetic products) are assessed as the most difficult.

Specifically, although the number of enterprises carrying out the procedure for “granting import permit of medical equipment" is not remarkable and each enterprise only carries out this procedure about three times per year, up to 55% of them encountered difficulties. This is the highest difficult procedure among the 12 surveyed procedures.

Similarly, up to 49% of enterprises have not given a positive assessment of the procedure "Issuing number to receive the announcement of imported cosmetic products".

The two procedures of the Ministry of Health are two inter-sectoral administrative procedures. 31% of enterprises had difficulties carrying out the procedure for Vietnamese and foreign ships leaving international seaports and 27% faced difficulties to carry out the procedure for Vietnamese and foreign ships entering international seaports.

It can be seen that, despite being the two groups of procedures with the highest performance rate, about one-third of enterprises still had difficulties in implementing them on the National Single Window Portal. 30% of businesses had difficulties to implement the procedure of "Inspecting the quality of imported goods" of the Ministry of Science and Technology. The remaining administrative procedures have a lower rate of enterprises facing difficulties.

Different interests of ministries and agencies in administrative reform

According to Dr. Nguyen Minh Thao, Head of the Business Environment and Competitiveness Research Department, at the Central Institute for Economic Management, the implementation of some administrative procedures has had positive changes. For example, procedures in the field of transportation and quality inspection have been completely implemented in the electronic environment, making import and export activities and customs clearance of goods of enterprises more convenient.

However, there are various online implementation levels of procedures. That shows the different interests of ministries and agencies in administrative reform, specialized inspection, and facilitation for import and export enterprises.

Experts give feedback on draft Decree on information connection for National Single Window

Mr. Hoang Quang Phong, Vice Chairman of VCCI said that there is still much work to be done in the reform process. Businesses suggest that the National Single Window should be implemented faster and more effectively to minimize the paper documents, switch to digitization and avoid the situation that businesses have to declare information on the National Single Window Portal and have to go through the procedures at the state agencies.

State agencies also need to have a mechanism to connect and share information to avoid duplicate requests for businesses.