The National Assembly Standing Committee and the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) have jointly held a conference to collect opinions of enterprises and the Association of Enterprises on administrative reform in the fields of land, housing, construction, taxation and customs in Hanoi.
On the sidelines of the conference, Vietnam Business Forum interviewed Ngo Hai Phan, Vice Head of the Bureau of State Administrative Organization under the Government Office, cum Vice Head of the Project 30 Management Board.
Could you provide the latest statistics on administrative reform of the taxation and customs?
The General Departments of Customs and Taxation have so far completed the progress of simplifying procedures. The Ministry of Finance has sent the report on administrative procedure simplification at the two sectors to the Project 30 Taskforce, in detail, the taxation sector has rechecked and proposed to simplify 256 out of 330 procedures, equalling to the rate of 66 per cent and cutting about 45 per cent of costs. The Ministry of Finance and the General Department of Taxation will have to amend two decrees, 14 circulars and two decisions of the Minister. For the customs field, the general department has rechecked and simplified 108 out of 168 documents, equalling to the rate of 82 per cent and helping to cut 32 per cent of costs. The ministry of Finance and the General Department must amend three decrees, 12 circulars and eight decisions of the minister.
In the next phase, the two departments of customs and taxation will work with the Ministry of Finance to submit the government draft amended documents based on the rechecked results over the past time. As the amended documents take effect and are promoted in the life, locals and enterprises will be enjoyed new policies.
What do you think of the progress of the reform process?
The administrative reform in general and the Project 30 in particular have been implemented strictly by the General Department of Taxation and the General Department of Customs under the instruction of Finance Minister as well as leaders of the two sectors. These are the two sectors taking the lead in the administrative reform and have exceeded the required targets as well ensure the deadline. They have also joined hands closely with the Project Taskforce and relevant agencies.
The efficiency of administrative reform reflects not only in the simplification of legal documents system but also in other factors. What do you say about that?
Apart from simplifying procedures, the administrative reform needs to combine all five criteria: administrative procedure simplification; the factor of human; the support of people and enterprises; application of science and technology; surveillance of locals and finally favors to staff.
Could you clarify the role of these criteria?
As promoting the Project 30, the simplification of legal document system has been chosen as the initial step to ensure the transparency for locals and enterprises. Following this, the factor of human needs to be paid attention to, particularly to staff who directly implement the Project. In parallel with the two factors, it is necessary to mobilize the support as well raise the awareness of locals and enterprises in order to help them to give up habits of “commission” and “back-door”. In addition, the application of IT, science and technology and surveillance of the people over the reform work are also vital. Finally, the government needs to pay attention to preferential policies to staff in order to perfect the reform work.
Reported by Thoa Nguyen
Vietnamese
