Vietnam to simplify approvals
One-stop service to start next year
Vietnam, which has a reputation among foreign investors for onerous red tape and bribe-taking officials, is simplifying approval
processes for businesses and its citizens by designating single agencies to do the paperwork.Foreign businesses in the communist
country said the new rules, which include publishing schedules of government fees to combat corrupt charging by officials, were a
good first step.
``I think there's a genuine effort to reform the administrative apparatus,'' said Tony Foster, partner at law firm Freshfields, Bruckhaus
and Deringer in Hanoi and the head of the city's American Chamber of Commerce chapter.``At the moment, anything of any
ambiguity turns up on the PM's desk. He's desperately trying to give people responsibility and accountability.''
State-run newspapers reported the ruling, signed by Prime Minister Phan Van Khai, would require authorities down to the smallest
grassroot units across the country to provide a one-stop service for approvals from next year. The approvals include construction
permits, local and foreign investment projects, registering family members, home ownership, business registrations and land use
right certificates, newspapers said. Publicly setting fees and a timetable for services would ``combat corruption and any authoritarian
attitudes among state officials and employees,'' the English language state newspaper Viet Nam News reported.
Onerous red tape, graft and overlapping government procedures are often cited by foreign investors as major deterrents to doing
business in Vietnam. As recently as two years ago, some local businesses required more than 100 licences to start operations.
Nowadays, ``putting a company in place is relatively easy compared with the past,'' said one foreign businessman in Hanoi.``There
should be a particular department for foreigners that receive applications to make sure they get properly guided,'' he added.
The Bangkok Post - September 9, 2003
Vietnam eases path for foreign cash
Vietnam is to simplify and clean up its commercial law in an attempt to attract more foreign investment.
A sweeping series of reforms aims to combat the country's reputation for excessive red tape, corruption and official
mismanagement. The reforms, which take effect at the beginning of next year, are the latest step in a rapid liberalisation and
modernisation of Vietnam's economy, one of the fastest-growing in Asia. While communist Vietnam now attracts more foreign direct
investment than capitalist Thailand or the Philippines, the government is concerned that bureaucratic bottlenecks might choke off
long-term prosperity.
Setting up shop
The focus of the latest set of reforms is an effort to delegate responsibility. Under the present system, investors need petty
approvals from far too many different official agencies, and issues of any complexity can only be referred up to the prime minister's
office.
Under the new rules, every agency will have to act as a one-stop shop, able to process approvals instantly without referral
elsewhere. The plan stops short of what some foreign firms have been demanding - a government agency dedicated to dealing with
all the requirements of would-be investors.
But it sets out to tackle investors' main gripe - the widespread official corruption that the current approvals process allows to thrive.
State agencies will have to start publishing schedules of government fees, in order to prevent corrupt officials asking for more than
their due.
Invest for success
Vietnam may have a grim reputation among investors, but it is attracting foreign money with remarkable speed. From a negligible
base at the beginning of the 1990s, the country has brought in over $17bn of foreign direct investment to date, almost the same
amount as Turkey. This is largely the function of economic liberalisation. Until two years ago, for example, firms needed up to 100
separate licences to trade; now, that figure can be less than 20. New foreign investment has levelled off over the past couple of
years, something that has sparked concern among Vietnamese policy makers.
But Vietnam is still performing strongly against a background of sharply falling global foreign investment. And during the first eight
months of this year, the country received more foreign investment than during the whole of 2002.
BBC News - September 8, 2003
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