Need to advance the specialized inspection reform and reduce business conditions

Staffs of the Ho Chi Minh Customs Department inspect import goods. Photo: Thu Hoa.

If ministers determine, good results will come

According to Mr. Tran Dinh Thien, Director of Vietnam Institute of Economics, said: The reform momentum is very good, creating a very high level of confidence for businesses. Therefore, the implementation of breakthrough solutions on the administrative procedures and business conditions, need to do better to build a sustainable economy. Mr. Tran Dinh Thien also noted that the ministries had to make real cuts, and repeated the Prime Minister's opinion that from word to action and from action to achievement of development is a gap. In the coming time, Mr. Thien said that it needs a real reduction and that the Government must have conditions to monitor the implementation. “If it stops, it will be very difficult to get this momentum back”, he said.

Agreeing with him, Mr. Nguyen Dinh Cung, Director of the Central Institute for Economic Management, said that this reform received a very drastic, direct and specific direction from the Government, within the inspection and control, through which ministries have begun to reform themselves. However, Mr. Cung said that the results were uneven, such as the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Ministry of Health have worked effectively and gotten good results. While the other agencies just have plans, even have ideas but not plans. According to Mr. Cung's assessment, where the ministry leaders, especially ministers who have directed drastically, there have been good results, and fast changes. This situation shows that the ministers are moving unevenly.

Mr. Cung also mentioned the problem of time for reducing procedures. For example, in the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the reform plan was implemented quickly, but it took 4-5 months from the beginning of the move to the official decree. As the government's requirement is to reduce 50% of administrative procedures and business conditions, the ministries need to move faster, implement more drastically for this to be achieved.

Mr. Hoang Quang Phong, vice chairman of VCCI, repeatedly mentioned the problem of specialized inspection for the resolution. There is still overlap in the management of ministries, departments and even in the same ministry and branch. This causes a lengthy clearance time, high costs, thereby reducing the competitiveness of enterprises. In addition, he also said that the implementation of the National Single Window is not effective. Most of the connection procedures have not been thoroughly done by both online and manual registration, resulting in low efficiency compared to the expectations.

Continuing many plans to reduce

In this fact, at the inspection of the Prime Minister group with 16 ministries and branches, leaders of many ministries have determined to reform and set a specific roadmap. For example, the Ministry of Transport has planned to review 166 specialized inspection items in the first quarter for achieving the 50% reduction. For simplifying business conditions, the Ministry of Transport has 570 business conditions that the people and enterprises must apply. Of which the road industry has 5 business sectors with 127 business conditions, the railway industry has 3 business sectors and 26 business conditions; the maritime industry has 7 business sectors with 180 business conditions; the airlines industry has 6 business sectors with 78 business conditions; the inland waterways industry has 3 sectors with 49 business conditions; the registration industry has 2 business sectors and 7 business conditions. The Ministry of Transport confirmed it would reduce 282 business conditions from a total of 570 conditions. The resolution is to issue a decree amending several decrees.

The Ministry of Health also affirmed that the Decree No. 15/2017/ND-CP removed many obstacles for enterprises, however, after the decree has taken effect for a time, the Ministry will assess to resolve the remaining problems and will drastically propose further reductions. On the reduction of business conditions, the Ministry of Health has 19 areas that need to have a list for business investment. At present, the Ministry of Health has promulgated 12/12 decrees in accordance with the Government directives. Particularly in the food sector, the Government has issued the Decree No.15/2018/ND-CP to minimize the administrative procedures, estimated to save 7.7 million working days due to reducing administrative procedures. Currently, the Ministry of Health has 136 administrative procedures, which are expected to reduce by 24%. However, the MOH leaders are continuing to request its units to take the second reviewing to ensure the implementation of the guidelines of the Government for cutting 50% of administrative procedures.

Although the ministries have a plan to reduce the specialized inspection procedures and business conditions, the monitoring work of the implementation is the role of the supervisory agencies such as the working group of the Prime Minister. Thus the head of the Prime Minister Mai Tien Dung’s working group said that his group will check the implementation time under the commitments of ministries.