Post-inspections should be enhanced for efficient business condition reform: experts

At the seminar “Quality of business conditions: issues and recommendations,” held by the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM) and the Aus4reform program, Nguyen Minh Thao, head of the CIEM’s Business Environment and Competitiveness Department, noted that the business condition reform still has shortcomings as many unnecessary and unreasonable conditions remain in place, creating pressure for enterprises.

Many ministries, agencies and localities have issued decisions to abolish business conditions but these conditions are still being applied. Further, some ministries and agencies have failed to provide a strong basis for their business condition abolishment proposals.

In the coming months, it is necessary to enhance post-inspections, which should be carried out during the standard operations of enterprises. A channel to receive feedback from enterprises should be set up as well, Thao added.

According to CIEM Director Tran Thi Hong Minh, business condition reform is aimed at creating a favorable business environment for enterprises. In the 2017-2019 period, ministries and agencies proposed halving business conditions to reduce costs, time and risks for enterprises.

At the seminar, former CIEM director Nguyen Dinh Cung stated that in 2017, the institute had suggested cutting three-quarters of the 4,000 existing business conditions.

However, the proposal was later changed into “cutting and simplifying at least 50% of business conditions,” which is unclear as changing the name of a business condition or abolishing a small part of a business condition can also be interpreted as “simplifying business conditions,” Cung noted.