The electronic one-door mechanism  is operating in.Ngo Quyen District, Hai Phong City

(VOVworld) – Vietnam’s administrative reforms since 2001 have made certain achievements contributing to the country’s socio-economic development. This program, whose goal is to simplify administrative procedures for individuals and enterprises, has significantly reduced expenses. Today VOV takes a look at these reforms.

The highlight of the decade-long program of state administrative reforms was the Prime Minister’s project to simplify administrative procedures for state management from 2007 to 2010 - known as Project 30. This was the first time the Government created an official channel to listen to and collect opinions in the private sector. It also established an Advisory Council for Administrative Procedure Reforms. One area of particular interest to the public and businesses is taxation. The tax sector has simplified 271 of 330 sets of administrative procedures, saving nearly 96 million USD annually. Information technology is the key to achieving success in the sector, according to Hoang Thi Lan Anh, Deputy Head of the Committee for Reforms and Modernization of the General Department of Taxation. Lan Anh said ‘Apart from applying IT, almost all administrative procedures relating to taxation have been adjusted to become simpler and clearer. The tax declaration form is an example. All forms have been studied for modification pursuant to Circular 60, which calls for unnecessary or duplicated information to be eliminated. This particularly relates to the declaration for reimbursement of personal income tax’.

Meanwhile, the Social Insurance sector has focused on decentralization, a breakthrough in the industry’s administrative reforms. In Hai Phong, all social insurance mechanisms and policies will now be resolved by the district instead of the city. Truong Van Quy, Director of Social Insurance in Hai Phong, said ‘Decentralization in management is a breakthrough in administrative procedure reforms for Hai Phong’s Insurance sector. By re-developing the process, we have changed awareness and ways of doing things, and have improved the responsibility capacity of the agency’s staff. We will streamline the apparatus at the city level while improving personnel at the district agency, which works directly with the public’.

The achievements of the tax and insurance sectors are clear validation of the master program of administrative procedure reforms in Vietnam. To date, 258 procedures have been simplified or consolidated. The simplification has helped save about 274 million USD per year, and for the first time, there is a national database of administrative procedures. Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc heads up the Prime Minister’s specialized group for administrative procedures reforms. Phuc remarked ‘We have fundamentally completed the checking of administrative procedures and ensured two major criteria. They are to simplify 30% of all administrative procedures and reduce by 30% the cost of these procedures. This is an important success’.

In Vietnam’s socio-economic development strategy until 2020, the country has vowed to perfect its administration building a state administration that is transparent, powerful, and efficient. Administrative reforms will be made in all areas of the national administration. Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc added ‘We will continue to propose one-door and inter-sector administrative reforms. The program will continue to focus on increasing supervision, publicization, transparency of administrative procedures, and monitoring the way staff in ministries and industries work with individuals and enterprises’.

Vietnam is trying to develop a democratic, professional, and effective administration geared to anti-corruption fights, socio-economic development, and international integration.