Administrative and planning procedures
On October 9, the Central Council for Coordinating the Dissemination and Education of Law organized the 2024 Business and Law Forum with the theme "Joining hands to solve legal issues, contributing to creating a favorable investment and business environment for enterprises".
At the forum, in the discussion session on some legal issues regarding investment projects using land, Mr. Nguyen Quoc Hiep, Chairman of the Vietnam Association of Construction Contractors shared that the most common problems facing businesses today lie in administrative procedures and site clearance.
"Our project alone requires 177 steps and 360 days to have enough time for dialogue and enforcement. Land acquisition procedures are a burden that real estate businesses have to endure," said Mr. Hiep.
Regarding administrative procedures, according to Mr. Hiep, some projects require 38-40 seals. And although there is a model process for handling administrative procedures, this process needs to be re-examined because there are no sanctions, causing the procedures to be prolonged. "In addition, regarding planning adjustments, many things are not important but still require all levels and opinions, and then the investment policy must be adjusted," said Mr. Hiep.
Sharing the same view, Ms. Pham Thi Ngoc Thuy, Director of the Office of Private Economic Development Research, acknowledged that administrative procedures are always in the Top 3 obstacles that businesses encounter. The Government has made many efforts to solve this problem, but there are still many difficult issues, especially related to foreign investment projects, so it is necessary to focus highly on solving the "problem" related to administrative procedure reform and the story of transparency in information on the progress of investment projects.
Discussing this issue, Mr. Ha Quang Hung, Deputy Director of the Department of Housing and Real Estate Market Management, Ministry of Construction said that currently, under the direction of the National Assembly and the Government, almost all administrative procedures have been decentralized and delegated to localities.
Consider the "green channel" mechanism
Speaking at the forum, Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Thi Bich Ngoc said that cutting administrative procedures has been a consistent guiding principle of the Government over the past time. "At present, for investment projects in industrial parks and economic zones with available planning, high-tech fields such as chips and semiconductors, we are proposing to follow a special process. There will be no procedures for approving investment policies, technology assessment and appraisal, or environmental impact assessment. The project does not have a construction component and does not have to establish construction-related procedures," Ms. Ngoc said.
According to Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment, the Government is moving from pre-control to post-control. Ministries and sectors will issue standards and regulations that investors must comply with. At the same time, investors must commit that if there are violations during the implementation process, there will be sanctions.
At the 2024 Business and Law Forum, Deputy Prime Minister Le Thanh Long requested the Ministry of Justice to fully synthesize the opinions and advice on the Prime Minister's directive documents, assigning tasks to agencies, first of all the agencies in charge of revising draft laws. The Deputy Prime Minister also directed ministries and branches to study the issues raised at the forum in an open-minded manner. The accepted opinions need to be revised and included in the documents, if not, they need to be satisfactorily explained.
