Industry and Trade Sector Vows to Simplify 108 Administrative Procedures in 2017

At the recent dialogue between the Prime Minister and enterprises, Industry and Trade Minister Tran Tuan Anh strongly pledged to reform institutions and administrative procedures to create all conditions to support businesses.

Speaking at the meeting, Minister Tran Tuan Anh said that the ministry has focused on reviewing, eradicating, adjusting or building new documents and regulations on institutional reform since the beginning of 2016, including over 60 circulars issued by the ministry, six decisions submitted to the Prime Minister for promulgation, and 15 decrees submitted to the Government for issuance or adjustment.

Many inappropriate regulations were quickly reviewed, removed or amended to meet new requirements, such as abolishing Circular 37/2015/TT-BCT on limits and inspections of formaldehyde content and aromatic amino acids metabolised from azo dyes in textile products; amending regulations on the declaration of chemicals in Circular 40/2011/TT-BCT; drafting Circular 36/2016/TT-BCT (replacing Circular 07/2012/TT-BCT) on energy labelling for energy-consuming means and equipment towards abolishing the certificate of energy labelling for each imported lot and energy-labelling requirement prior to customs clearance; issuing Circular 04/2017/TT-BCT amending and supplementing Circular 20/2011/TT-BCT dated May 12, 2011 of the Minister of Industry and Trade on additional procedures for import of passenger automobiles of nine seats or fewer, which abolishes regulations on the certificate of car warranty and qualified maintenance facilities.

Many other management regulations are being urgently completed for promulgation and submitted to the Government, the Prime Minister, and the National Assembly for consideration and promulgation in the coming time, such as Law on Foreign Trade Management; Decree on conditions for investment in imported automobile manufacturing and assembling; Decree amending and supplementing the Government's Decree 109/2010/ND-CP dated November 4, 2010 on rice export business; Decree amending and supplementing the Government's Decree 42/2010/ND-CP dated May 14, 2014 on multi-level marketing of goods; Decree amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Government's Decree 67/2013/ND-CP of June 27, 2013 detailing a number of articles and measures on enforcement of the Law on Prevention and Combat of Harms of Tobacco on tobacco business; Governmental Decree detailing and guiding the implementation of some articles of the Law on Chemicals; and Decree on management of mineral extraction and trading.

In addition to institutional reform and apparatus reform, closely linked is reforming administrative procedures and building e-government to improve the quality and effectiveness of the ministry’s administration and facilitate business and people. In 2016, the ministry reviewed, simplified and abolished 39 administrative procedures out of 453 administrative procedures under its jurisdiction (specifically electronic commerce, chemicals, wine production and business, franchising, merchandising through commodity exchanges, energy, food safety and electricity).

In this process, to deal with overall issues of simplification of administrative procedures under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Minister also issued Decision 4846/QD-BCT approving the Master Plan for Simplification of Administrative Procedures under the jurisdiction of the ministry in 2017. Accordingly, in 2017, the ministry will abolish 15 administrative procedures and simplify 108 procedures out of a total of 453 procedures within its power. These simplified administrative procedures are categorised into 17 areas stated in 40 legal normative documents (28 circulars, two joint circulars, one Prime Minister’s decision and nine decrees).
The general spirit of the Master Plan for Public Administration Reform is creating favourable conditions for enterprises’ production and business operations, ensuring the interests of the people and raising the efficiency of State management at the same time.

Along with institutional reform and administrative procedure simplification, the Ministry of Industry and Trade also renovated action methods. Accordingly, to provide more online services at higher levels as per the given roadmap, up to now, all central administrative procedures under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Industry and Trade have been provided online at Level 2 and higher, particularly, 11 groups of online public services at Level 4 and 45 groups of online public services at Level 3, totalling 157 online public services applied at Level 3 and Level 4.

Electronic processes have brought in very positive results. From January 1, 2016 to February 20, 2017, the Ministry of Finance received 707,460 documents relating to administrative procedures, including 667,110 sent online or 94.3 per cent of the total and 30,980 settled at Level 4 (4.6 per cent).

In 2017, according to the plan set in Decision 4846/QD-BCT, the Ministry of Industry and Trade will further build and upgrade 22 online public services (including 14 services at Level 4 and eight at Level 3).

Minister Anh emphasised that defining that institutional reform, administrative procedure simplification and e-government deployment is a regular and continuous process aimed at realising the objectives of a government in action and for enterprises and people, in the coming time, the Ministry of Industry and Trade will continue to provide appropriate directions to have more substantive and comprehensive reforms in operations.

Huong Giang