With the National Single Window seeing a positive change in terms of the time and costs of making administrative procedures for enterprises after undergoing an implementation period, there remains obstacles for local businesses due to their poor procedures when handling and submitting numerous documents to different agencies.

Upon conducting an assessment of the satisfaction level of nearly 3,100 enterprises about implementation administrative procedures through the National Single Window, up to 95% of respondents said that the majority of the e-portal’s basic functions work fine. However, several ministries and agencies have so far failed to ensure the progress of administrative procedures following their implementation through the National Single Window.

Nguyen Kim Dung, director of Legal and Foreign Affairs of the British School System in Vietnam, states that local firms often encounter problems when applying to "one-stop" agencies.

Many difficulties that businesses face come from the fact that they do not know what contents of a document needs to be submitted, submission deadlines, whilst knowledge about what constitutes a valid profile is also a problem for them.

“The national portal needs to specify which application procedures and lists of documents to submit and how long it takes to complete these procedures. At that time, all procedures will become clearer for businesses as well as officials working at the national portal,” Dung said.

According to Truong Van Cam, vice chairman of Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association, it is imperative to deal with inconsistent documents and regulations that exist among ministries and agencies so that the new National Single Window mechanism can operate both effectively and smoothly.

With there being a desire to create more favourable conditions for the domestic business community, both the Ministry of Finance and the General Department of Customs will continue to co-ordinate greater efforts alongside relevant ministries and sectors.

This will be done in an effort to accelerate the reform of administrative procedures and modernize procedure implementation on the National Single Window portal.

The National Single Window serves as a one-stop system for carrying out customs clearance procedures that can help streamline administrative procedures used in import and export activities whilst being in accordance with international standards and practices.

With the nation increasing its deeper international integration and participating in many bilateral and multilateral trade agreements, the business community can expect that various ministries and sectors should accelerate the deployment of electronic payment forms to help businesses alleviate difficulties when using digital signatures.

This should be done simultaneously as a way of improving the transparency offered in information provision, the process of handling documents, publicising the procedure settlement results, and simplifying forms and papers, therefore making it easier for enterprises to understand.