Sluggishness of administrative procedure remains problematic for enterprises

Complicated and timely administrative procedure has always been a big issue for Ho Chi Minh City in particular and for Vietnam in general. 

In the recent meeting of Ho Chi Minh City's businessmen, Dr. Tran Du Lich, member of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Group said that the key role of Vietnam in this year is to restructure the economy and focus on administrative reform.

According to Dr. Lich, without improving the administrative procedure, public investment projects such as the metro lines in Ho Chi Minh City will continue to be implemented very slowly as money for public projects is usually disbursed at the end of the year.

“Money is not the main issue, the money loaned from Japan to implement the metro line has already been held by the bank. Nevertheless, none metro line was established over the last 10 years because of the extremely slow disbursement process,” said Dr. Lich.

The sluggishness of state administrative procedure is also a big concern for Cao Thi Ngoc Dung, Chairman of PNJ, particularly in their application for permission to build new headquarter. 

"At present, our company is overloaded, still we are not sure when will the State give us permission to build a new headquarter," said Dung.

"Our land is clean land and does not have any legal issues, yet it has been seven months and we have not seen any actual progress. With such slow and complex administrative procedure, it is very difficult for a business to be well developed," Dung added.

Experiencing the same issue, Le Huu Nghia, Director of LETHACO., Ltd mentioned that they are trying to provide preferential support to businesses that build social housing in the city. 

Nevertheless, it has been six months since they first submitted their documents without receiving any results, while some cases can be done in just a month.

Chairman of Viet Huong Group, who currently manages three industrial parks in Binh Duong province, said that many domestics and FDI enterprises prefer to settle in Binh Duong province instead of Ho Chi Minh City mainly due to the administrative procedure.

"The core issue that makes Ho Chi Minh City much less attractive to investors is its administrative procedure. In Binh Duong province it will only take 10-30 days for an enterprise to solve its problem, while in Ho Chi Minh City, the same issue cannot be resolved in three months time," said Chi.

Discussing this issue, Chu Tien Dung, President of Ho Chi Minh City Union of Business Associations (HUBA) said that in reality the State has had many policies on administrative reform since the beginning of the year though it still has not had much effect.