The Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) has asked for the removal of 14 kinds of licences that it finds unnecessary for management work.

VCCI has declared the results of its survey on the enforcement of 37 kinds of licences. 89% of the currently valid licences have been found as having problems in licencing procedures; 35% have been hindering the operation of businesses.

6,300 private businesses were surveyed. Every business, on average, had to get four licences. It took these businesses from 30 to 90 days to get these four kinds of licences; 13% said that it had been very hard to get the necessary licences.

The 37 types of licences subject to VCCI’s survey include five licences in culture and information sector, three in public order, two in food hygiene, nine in transport, six in construction and 12 in post and telecommunications services.

Dr Nguyen Thi Thu Trang, a member of VCCI’s research team, said that nearly all types of business licences did not contain information about management effectiveness. It is quite popular nowadays to see businesses operating without licences. This shows that there are big problems in business management.

“We proposed the removal of 14 types of licences shown to hinder the normal operations of businesses,” said Ms Trang.

Ms Trang also pointed out that many regulations had been applied in reality, but they could not be seen in any legal documents, or only could be seen in documents no longer valid. The certificate on meeting the requirements for trading petrol (applied for petrol retail agents), is one example.

According to the research team, advertising firms must get 12 stamps from 6 authorities. Enterprises must follow many steps to get their businesses registered, and the most complicated step is the period of ‘pre-procedures’ –  the period before enterprises’ files are submitted to competent authorities to be recognised as ‘lawful’.

According to VCCI, 51% of the verified types of licences have been found as having problems in legal respects, while 35% of licences do not protect any public interest.

Vu Xuan Tien, Director of VFAM Vietnam Consultant Firm, said that the existence of many unnecessary licences only benefits state management authorities.

The existence of such insignificant licences is the seed of corruption.

“The 37 types of licenses mentioned by VCCI are just a part of the total licences currently valid. The 14 licences that VCCI has proposed to remove are just the tip of the iceberg,” said Mr Tien.

Lawyer Cao Ba Quat, Director of the Lawyers and Associates consultant firm, said that there were many other problems that the VCCI’s survey did not cover. He said that it should be discovered why 75% of lawsuits relate to land problems, and why Vietnam ranked last (56/56) in an international report on the transparency of real estate markets.

Source: VnExpress