Prime Minister's working group: 'Forest' of business procedures costs up to 14,300 billion VND/year

To produce chocolate products, 13 licenses are needed, one raw material for confectionery production must follow 4 documents from the same ministry..., the "forest" of specialized inspection procedures is causing the business community to spend up to 14,300 billion VND each year.

Minister and Chairman of the Government Office Mai Tien Dung, Head of the Prime Minister's Working Group, speaks at the working session on the morning of August 21. Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac

This is the reality stated at the inspection of 11 ministries and branches conducted by the Prime Minister's Working Group on the morning of August 21 on the reform of specialized inspection activities for import and export goods.

Speaking at the opening of the inspection session, Minister and Head of the Government Office Mai Tien Dung, Head of the Working Group, said that currently the rate of import and export shipments subject to specialized inspection at the customs clearance stage is up to 30-35% and Resolution 19 of the Government has required it to be reduced to 15%.

The rate of imported and exported goods requiring veterinary inspection is 14.3%, quality inspection is 25.3%, food safety inspection is 19.1%, import and export licenses and equivalent requirements are 41.2%...

“We must be determined to cut unnecessary licenses and procedures. The Prime Minister raised the issue of cutting unofficial and official costs, 2017 is the year to reduce costs for businesses,” Minister Mai Tien Dung emphasized.

According to data from the Central Institute for Economic Management, there are currently about 100,000 items that require specialized inspection. Every year, businesses have to spend 28.6 million working days and 14,300 billion VND on specialized inspection costs.

In Resolution 19, the Government determined that it was necessary to comprehensively reform specialized management and inspection activities, assigning 3 general tasks to ministries and 8 tasks to each ministry. According to the report, the ministries have completed 3 tasks. In Decision 2026, the Prime Minister also assigned ministries to revise and supplement 87 documents. Currently, 60 documents have been reviewed, of which 56 have been revised and supplemented, and 4 documents are deemed not to need revision or supplementation.

The working group also publicly announced the completion rate of the ministries' tasks. Of which, the ministries of Science and Technology (2 documents), Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, Culture, Sports and Tourism, and Planning and Investment (1 document each) have all completed 100%.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development was assigned to review 49 documents and has completed 75.5%. The Ministry of Industry and Trade has 10 documents and has completed 90%. The Ministry of Health was assigned 9 documents and has completed 55.6%. The Ministries of Information and Communications, National Defense, Natural Resources and Environment, and Transport each have 2 documents and have only completed reviewing 1.

Ministries that have not reviewed any documents include Construction (4 documents) and Public Security (2 documents).

Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac

In addition to checking the implementation of tasks assigned by the Government and the Prime Minister in Resolution 19 and Decision 2026, the inspection also aims to initially review all procedures related to specialized inspection. Minister and Chairman Mai Tien Dung said that there are currently many overlapping procedures, of the shipments subject to specialized inspection, up to 58% have to undergo inspection procedures 2-3 times, increasing costs for businesses.

In particular, the Head of the Working Group pointed out that currently many ministries still have a monopoly in conformity assessment. Many imported goods from the world's leading manufacturers are still inspected by specialized agencies and manually, which needs to be reviewed. There is a situation where the ministry only assigns one agency nationwide to conduct inspections, causing costs for businesses to increase greatly due to "transporting goods from North to South, from South to North just for inspection and appraisal".

In inspection, manual methods are mainly applied, information technology connection between agencies is limited, and risk management has not been applied. There are many inspections but the rate of detecting violations is very low, only 0.1%.

According to the General Department of Customs, specialized inspection procedures take up to 50% of customs clearance time. Many shipments are inspected by Customs but cannot be cleared. Even after 3 months, specialized departments come to inspect. Today there is one procedure, tomorrow there is another procedure.

“A chocolate product needs 13 types of licenses, 12 raw materials need 12 types of licenses, and finally the finished product must be confirmed. Yogurt products must be quarantined according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, and food safety must be inspected according to the Ministry of Health. Silkworm cocoons and sunflower seeds also need 2 ministries; one ministry cannot do it, just splitting it up like that is not good. And the ministries never go together, I will wait until the other one comes back before I go. There are many practical problems like that, we have to deal with them,” Minister Mai Tien Dung stated.

The Minister also gave an example: a confectionery raw material must comply with 4 documents of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, including 3 circulars and 1 decision of the Minister. A plant variety must also comply with 3 circulars.

“Is that reasonable? I think businesses doing it for the first time will probably fumble around all night and still not be able to do it, like going into the woods,” the head of the working group stated.

Minister Mai Tien Dung said that after today's meeting, he will review each ministry, go into each procedure, not stop in generalities, and request specific explanations of which procedures are necessary and which are not.

According to Chinhphu.vn