The Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) has just sent a document with comments to the National Committee for Standards, Metrology and Quality (Ministry of Science and Technology) on the Draft Decree amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decree 105/2016/ND-CP of the Government regulating the operating conditions of organizations inspecting, calibrating and testing measuring instruments and measurement standards and Decree 154/2018/ND-CP amending, supplementing and abolishing a number of regulations on investment and business conditions in the field of state management of the Ministry of Science and Technology and a number of regulations on specialized inspection.

Commenting on the draft, VCCI pointed out four major issues that need to be reconsidered.

Firstly, on the operating conditions of service providers. The draft stipulates that service providers must “have legal status in accordance with the provisions of Vietnamese law”.

According to the provisions of the Enterprise Law, private enterprises do not have legal status, but are a type of enterprise. The operating conditions of service providers are designing requirements on facilities, technical staff and establishing and maintaining a management system according to standards. These are conditions that private enterprises can also meet.

Therefore, to facilitate entities to participate in this field, it is recommended to consider amending the above provision in the direction of: “being an organization established in accordance with the provisions of Vietnamese law”.

On the other hand, the draft requires technical staff to "have a certificate of completion of a basic training course in measurement", instead of just "completing a training course" as currently prescribed. VCCI believes that adding a "certificate" requirement is contrary to the goal of simplifying procedures.

"The addition of a certificate in the context of the draft amendment's goal of reducing and simplifying business conditions seems inappropriate," VCCI stated.

According to VCCI, the regulation also lacks transparency when it does not clarify the order and procedures for granting certificates. Will the Ministry of Science and Technology be the training unit or only issue certificates?

VCCI recommends amending in the direction that certificates of completion of training courses are not required and training should be carried out by non-state organizations and units.

Secondly, regarding the regulation on revoking certificates. The draft adds a provision to revoke the registration certificate if the enterprise "fails to fully perform one of the responsibilities specified in Article 11 of the Decree".

According to VCCI, revoking the registration certificate is a rather severe sanction, forcing the enterprise to stop or terminate its operations. Therefore, it should be considered to only apply to very serious violations that directly affect the operating conditions and quality of the services provided.

VCCI argues that the responsibility of "applying information technology, digital transformation in the inspection, calibration, and testing of measuring instruments and measurement standards" is an inherent act of the enterprise, not mandatory, and failure to do so will not affect customers or the operating conditions of the enterprise. Therefore, revoking the certificate in the case of non-digital transformation is inappropriate.

VCCI proposed to amend regulations on cases of certificate revocation in the direction of not meeting operating conditions and violating prohibited cases in measurement, inspection, calibration and testing activities.

Third, regulations on the responsibilities of service providers. The draft requires enterprises to report their activities monthly and send them to both the Ministry of Science and Technology and the provincial People's Committee.

According to VCCI's assessment, requiring enterprises to report monthly is too frequent, creating a compliance burden for enterprises.

It is unclear what basis the competent state agency has to require enterprises to report in addition to the case of periodic reporting. This could lead to the risk of the regulation being abused and causing difficulties for enterprises.

Requiring simultaneous reporting to the Ministry of Science and Technology and the provincial People's Committee is unreasonable, while licensing activities have been decentralized to the provincial People's Committee. Information can be shared between state agencies, requiring enterprises to report to multiple management agencies will create a procedural burden for enterprises.

"To ensure simplification of procedures and reduce compliance costs for businesses, it is recommended to reduce the reporting frequency to annual reports, clearly stipulate reporting requirements of competent state agencies when there are clear signs of violations from businesses and the agency receiving the report is the provincial People's Committee", VCCI proposed.

Fourth, on eliminating the procedure for reissuing registration certificates. The draft proposes to eliminate the procedure for reissuing lost or damaged certificates with the reason that it will completely convert to electronic versions.

However, VCCI found that this regulation still has many loopholes when the draft still allows submission of paper documents. So how will businesses that submit paper documents receive electronic certificates? With previously issued paper certificates, what should be done if they are lost or damaged? What are the procedures for businesses that want to convert from paper to electronic versions?

VCCI recommends that the drafting agency should clearly stipulate the above issues to ensure transparency and convenience when applied in practice.