Business conditions provoke enterprises’ concern despite reductions

Mai Tien Dung, minister and chairman of the Government Office and leader of a working team assembled by the Prime Minister, recently chaired a meeting to simplify or eliminate business conditions and adopt specialized inspection procedures for imported and exported commodities, under the directive of the Government, with the participation of the ministries of Transport, Finance, Planning and Investment, and Information and Communications.

Experts and the representatives of business associations were invited to the meeting for discussions with ministerial leaders.

Nguyen Cong Hung, vice chairman of the Vietnam Automobile Transportation Association, said that a draft Government decree to replace Decree No.86, stipulating the business conditions applicable to automobile transportation, included some inadequate regulations.

If these regulations are not properly adjusted, the transport sector’s business environment and development will be adversely affected.

Many regulations in the draft decree have created additional conditions, preventing companies from growing. In particular, according to Article 23 of the draft decree, the validity of intensive transportation badges for weekend operations is a maximum of three days.

As a result, transport operators will have to visit a transport department 52 times per year to request weekend transportation badges, said Hung, who was against the addition of this condition to the draft decree.

Vice chairman of the Vietnam Software and IT Services Association Le Xuan Hoa proposed that cargo falling within a single category and manufactured by a single plant should only undergo the inspection process for granting certificates once.

Addressing the meeting, a representative of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry said the adjusted business conditions were just a formality and brought no fundamental changes. This person suggested preferential policies should be made to favor enterprises with positive specialized-inspection results or that export products in full compliance with prevailing regulations related to food safety and national security.

Responding to the feedback of firms and associations, Dung said the working team would complete evaluations and reports based on the actual circumstances to assess the effectiveness of reducing business conditions, while tracking additional conditions that have caused difficulties for enterprises.

The working team’s latest report revealed that ministries and the relevant agencies had eliminated 1,517 business conditions out of 6,191 units and removed 1,700 out of a list of 9,926 product lines that have to undergo specialized inspections. However, the ministries still failed to hit even 50% of their initial targets.

Only seven ministries managed to exceed the targets assigned by the Government in terms of simplifying or eliminating the number of product lines in need of review; they were the ministries of Industry and Trade, Information and Communications, Science and Technology, Transport, and Construction. Meanwhile, several product lines needing review, managed by the ministries of Agriculture and Rural Development and Health, have yet to be reduced.