The survey on the level of business satisfaction helps enterprises facilitate in import and export process. Photo: Q.H

Expediting administrative reform more effective

A survey on the level of business satisfaction in performing administrative procedures in import and export activities has been jointly held by Vietnam Federation of Trade and Industry (VCCI), General Department of Vietnam Customs (GDVC) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) since 2012.

According to the GDVC, after 10 years of implementation, about 20,000 businesses have provided transparent information to expedite ministries and government agencies to reform in a more effective manner such as the transferring the receipt and processing of procedures from manual to electronic methods, implementing automatic supervision for goods, reducing overlapping in management activities, specialized inspection, shifting from pre-inspection to post-clearance audit.

Recently, survey results in 2019 showed that about 3,100 businesses expressed their opinions on 12 administrative procedures and public services that are most frequently processed on the National Single Window Portal. The enterprises participated in the survey that implemented procedures in recent 12 months. The assessed procedures are under the management of five ministries, including the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the Ministry of Health.

The survey results showed that most of basic functions on the National Single Window are running well. 95% and 93% of enterprises assessed that it is easy and relatively easy to implement for basic features such as “creating an account and logging in”, “viewing and printing profiles”.

93% and 89% of businesses assessed that it is easy or relatively easy to implement functions of “record management, and “view and print license/certificate”.

However, 35% of enterprises faced difficulties in using function of answering problems when using the system; 26% of businesses withdrawn/canceled records; 27% of enterprises were not satisfied with the unstable operation of the portal due to connection errors. About 20% of enterprises reflected that the processing speed of the portal is still low

Through the survey, businesses suggested that it is necessary to expedite the implementation of e-payments, remove the difficulties of enterprises when using digital signatures, and upgrade the functions of solving problems for businesses in administrative processes and provide additional business support facilities on the Portal. At the same time, they proposed the GDVC to coordinate with ministries and government agencies to promote the development of a centralized information technology system instead of the current distributed system.

Identifying shortcomings

In 2022, following the Government's instructions on reforming administrative procedures and reducing the compliance costs for businesses, VCCI continued to collaborate with the GDVC and USAID to conduct the business satisfaction survey on performing administrative procedures via the National Single Window and specialized management and inspection procedures.

The survey is expected to be conducted from May to July, which will focus on assessing the quality of performing administrative procedures and specialized management and inspection procedures by ministries and government agencies on the National Single Window Portal (https://vnsw.gov.vn), grasping difficulties and obstacles of businesses in import and export processes.

According to the VCCI’s representative, the survey in 2022 is expected to get feedback of 3,000 businesses, thereby identifying the stages and steps that are still obstacles in receiving and handling import and export procedures by each specific ministry or government agency. The feedback will be gathered and reported to the Government and ministries and government agencies to create more favorable conditions for enterprises in the import and export process.