Vietnam’s bid to cut red tape gets poor response
Vietnam’s bid to cut red tape gets poor response
While Vietnam’s government has called for efforts to simplify administrative procedures and cut red tape, some relevant agencies have seemingly underestimated the urgency of this call for change.
On March 12, the government issued Resolution No.19, tasking ministries, industries and administrations of provinces and cities with working out measures to improve business environment, and cut the time enterprises have to spend on paying taxes.
The Vietnam’s business environment indexes must be made to be higher than the average of the ASEAN-6, which consists of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, according to the resolution.
The resolution also sets many targets for the tax and customs sectors to achieve, such as a business should not spend more than 171 hours a year to pay taxes and social insurance, or the maximum times for a shipment to pass customs are 13 days for exports, and 14 days for imports, respectively.
The Resolution No.19 also sets 13 general tasks and 80 specific solutions for each ministry, agency and local administration, and requests that they submit their detailed “action plans” to implementation these measures by April 30.
However, the Ministry of Planning and Investment has received plans from 11 ministries and agencies, and 11 local administrations by Wednesday, it said at the conference.
Those that have yet to prepare the plans include the science and technology; public security; health; home affairs; information and communications; education and training; culture, sports and tourism; and foreign affairs ministries.
The administration of 52 provinces and cities, including Ho Chi Minh City, too do not have an action plan available.
A CIEM expert said the short deadline is to blame, as relevant units did not have enough time to prepare the plans in less than two months, from mid-March to late April.
