- The Saigon Times Daily interviewed Nguyen Dinh Cung, deputy director of the Central Institute for Economic Management under the ministry, about this issue.

The Saigon Times Daily: How has the idea of drawing up such a joint circular been conceived?

- Nguyen Dinh Cung: Currently, the legal system regarding investment, land allocation and construction is quite complicated, with ten laws, ten decrees and ten circulars, not to mention at least one guiding document in each city or province. Even an experienced specialist can be kept out of reach with such documents.

This has reflected complexity, overlapping, vagueness, inconsistency and conflicts in the law enforcement.

Provincial governments are confused and do not know where the licensing process begins, which procedures should go first and which ones last, how many documents are enough, and which agencies are in charge of which documents in how long. Such questions are unanswered to enterprises.

It can be seen that enterprises are encountering a host of difficulties in complying with administrative procedures in the three aforementioned fields, and this needs to be changed.

Such a circular seems to affect many relevant sides. Does your team receive any support for the idea?

- First of all, changes and breakthroughs are needed if we want to improve the business environment. Moreover, the Prime Minister has regarded the in-depth administrative reform in investment-land-construction as one of the priorities. In the overall economic restructuring scheme, the Prime Minister has also required agencies to form a suitable process of connecting administrative procedures regarding investment-land-construction. Besides, in Directive 11, the Prime Minister has asked the Ministry of Planning and Investment to coordinate with the Ministry of Construction and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to map out a joint circular on linking administrative procedures of investment-land-construction for investment projects.

We have set up a team which studies and follows changes of relevant regulations.

How will the joint circular help?

- In general, the circular will identify existing administrative procedures, form a process, identify documents and their contents, and order of procedures to reduce time for investors. Its goal is to shorten the time of handling administrative procedures for both investors and State management agencies, reduce costs, increase transparency and anticipation while performing procedures.

Reducing difficulties for investors also means increasing the management capacity of agencies. It is hopeful that we will finish the draft circular this quarter.

What do you think about the implementation of this circular in provinces?

- Recent Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI) surveys show that provinces have a demand to reform procedures to become more competitive. Those localities reforming investment and construction procedures are highly appreciated by enterprises and have their higher positions in terms of competitiveness such as Binh Dinh, Bac Ninh and Thua Thien-Hue. Besides, many northern provinces have recently cared more about this issue after seeing southern provinces striving to improve the business environment.

In reality, each province has distinct investment procedures. In some provinces, the provincial people’s committee office is in charge of receiving dossiers while in other provinces, the unit in charge of this can be either the department of planning and investment or the department of construction.

With such differences, there needs to be a unified process and provinces will implement the process flexibly based on their situations.

The standardization of the licensing process may not be easy. What are key challenges faced by ministries, agencies and provinces?

- Many may complain that while there are so many laws which are being revised, a new circular can do nothing to help. Moreover, the process of issuing a joint circular is not an easy task as coordination may be sometimes ineffective. And it is likely that making the entire process transparent will not receive support from a number of officials.

However, our advantage is the clear and strong commitment of the Government. In addition, the demand for changes in practice is huge. A circular which can standardize the entire licensing process is regarded as a breakthrough if we really want to improve the business environment. I believe that the business community and provinces will back such a circular.

Source: SaigonTimes.