Hanoi (VNA) - The improvement is largely thanks to the application of information technology, according to a report on the index of administrative procedure compliance costs announced at a press confereꦅnce held by the Prime Minister’s Advisory Council for Administrative Procedure Reform in Hanoi on March 17.

Innovation must be sustained

Built on a standard cost model and surveys at businesses in Vietnam’s 63 cities and provinces, since 2018, when it was released for the first time, the APCI annual report has been considered an important tool that objectively reflects the level of administrative reform, improvements to the business environment, and enforcement of policies and laws thro🔯ugh analysing costs enterprises must pay to conduct administrative p🦋rocedures in line with the law.

The report covers eight groups of important administrative procedures for companies, namely ꦆstarting business and business registration, taxation, investment, licence and practicing certificate, customs, land, environment, and construction.

The group of taxation procedures ranked first in the APCI, with its overall improvement rate assessed at the highest level, up 5.6 points compared to 2019. Companies currently need 3.8 hours and 11,600 VND to carry out one taxation procedure on average. Thai Binh province was the best performer in carrying out taxation administrative procedures, with an average of 0.9 hours. Second place went to administrative procedures for specialised inspections, which improved 5 points compared to 2019. It was followed by administrative procedures relating to the environment and business conditions, which were up 0.5 points and 0.2 points, respectively, compared to 2019. Conversely, the five remaining groups of starting a business, investment, construction, land, and cross-border trade recorded lower scores than in APCI 2019.

Rooms still remain for reform

According to the most recent assessment of international organizations, Vietnam is promoted in both the Doing Business Index and the Global Competitiveness Index 4.0. Vietnam ranked 70 th among 190 economies in the World Bank’s Doing Business 2020 report compared to the 90^th in 2016 when a new term of Gov🌸ernment started. The Global Competitiveness Index 4.0 has been recorded to increase 10 places from 77th (over 140 countries) in 2💟018 to 67th (over 141 countries) in 2019. The WEF did not assess the index in 2020 due to the impacts of COVID-19.

The evaluation results of these prestigious international organisations are positive indicators that reflect the results that the Government has been achieving through the proactive design of a good legal system, the policies that have been implemented and good institutions to nurture a developing economy, the creation of a favorable business environment, and the building of an e-government... Assessing the purpose and meaning of the APCI and reform messages from the APCI 2020, Minister and Chairman of the Government Office Mai Tien Dung, who is also Chairman of the Prime Minister’s Advisory Council for Administrative Procedure Reform emphasized srongly improving the business environment, cutting costs and creating favorable conditions for businesses is one of the priorities of the Government for the 2016-2021 term. With the concept of building "Government of creation, integrity, action" and the approach of "putting people and businesses at the center of the reform and development process", the Government has implemented many actions. Worthy of note is the continuous issuance of resolutions on improving the business environment and national competitiveness. Minister Mai Tien Dung affirmed that the room for reforming administrative procedures and controlling compliance costs is still very large, and practical requirements for the general development of the economy and businesses also pose many challenges and opportunities, requiring us to constantly look at the business situation in detail and objectively in order to continue to improve things. Meanwhile, Truong Gia Binh, Vice Chairman of the Advisory Council for Administrative Procedure Reform of the Prime Minister, Head of the Research and Development Department of the Private Economy of the Council, said that efforts to reform administrative procedures, improve national competitiveness, monitoring the progress of the implementation of administrative work of the State is to reduce the cost of time and money for businesses in the procedures they need to do. Reform efforts have also contributed to the government's achievement of economic targets, he added./.