Need to remove difficulties in conditional business licensing procedures

In order to improve the Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI), in recent times, the Department of Planning and Investment and related departments, agencies and sectors have studied solutions to improve the market entry index, especially reviewing and shortening the processing time for conditional business licensing procedures, creating conditions for businesses to quickly complete procedures and start operations. In addition to the achieved results, there are still some shortcomings and problems related to conditional business licensing procedures for some fields, causing difficulties for both the enforcement agency and businesses.

Tung Luat boat repair facility of Mr. Tran Xuan Tung, Vinh Giang commune, Vinh Linh district, has now stopped operating because it does not have a certificate of eligibility to build and convert fishing boats - Photo: TT

Many regulations make it difficult for businesses and production facilities.

Operating for more than 30 years, in the past two years, Tung Luat boat repair facility, Tung Luat village, Vinh Giang commune, Vinh Linh district, owned by Mr. Tran Xuan Tung, was forced to stop because it did not have a certificate of eligibility to build and convert fishing boats.

Mr. Tung said: “People in this area mainly use small boats for fishing, so my facility specializes in minor repairs, handling common errors of boats such as holes in the bottom, simple engine failure. Now, if we register to be granted a certificate of eligibility to build new and convert fishing boats, there are many conditions that we cannot do, forcing us to lay off workers, and I myself have to find other jobs to earn an income.”

According to Mr. Le Van Ba, Trung An village, Hai Khe commune, Hai Lang district, in coastal areas like his hometown, people mainly use small capacity boats and basket boats for nearshore fishing. Therefore, it is not appropriate to require repair facilities to meet the conditions for being granted a certificate of eligibility to build and convert fishing boats such as workshops, technical staff, etc.

In 2023, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has 10 out of 12 administrative procedures (TTHC) on granting conditional business licenses generating licensing records. Of which, for the TTHC granting and re-granting certificates of establishments eligible to build and convert fishing vessels, currently the whole province has only 2/11 establishments granted certificates of establishments eligible to build and convert fishing vessels. The remaining 9 establishments have not been granted certificates according to regulations because they have not met the conditions of factory area, facilities, equipment, supervision team, quality management and technical workers, etc.

According to Decree No. 26, the minimum area for a type 3 shipbuilding facility (wooden hull and new material hull) must be from 1,000 ^m2 or more, which is too high, making it difficult for businesses to rent or buy land for premises. The requirements for the supervisory department, technical staff, quantity and qualifications require 6 people, with college degrees or higher. The requirements for the technical staff, regulations for type 1 and type 2 facilities must have 2-3 painters with intermediate qualifications or higher, which is difficult to implement.

Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Hong Phuong said that regarding the administrative procedures for granting and re-granting fishing licenses, currently in the province there are 381 fishing vessels with the largest length of 6 m or more that have not been inspected, registered and granted fishing licenses according to regulations, mainly small fishing vessels with bamboo or plastic (composite) hulls with the largest length of less than 12 m, equipped with engines with a capacity of 5.8 kW to 66.2 kW. The above fishing vessels have not been registered due to lack of documents as prescribed in Circular No. 23/2018/TTBNNPTNT dated November 15, 2018 of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Not only in the agricultural sector, in the medical sector, industries related to food safety also face similar difficulties.

Currently, business households and production and trading enterprises in the province are still small, mostly manual production, the owners are unskilled workers, not professionally trained in food, so they still face many difficulties when carrying out food safety procedures (procedures require professional knowledge such as product quality indicators, toxic substances, pathogenic microorganisms...).

The dossier components are based on Decree No. 155/2018/ND-CP dated November 12, 2018 of the Government, however, there is no form and no instructions on how to build the form, leading to difficulties for the administrative procedure settlement unit in guiding individuals and organizations to implement.

In addition, some regulations on the components of the dossier in the procedure for granting a license to operate a medical examination and treatment facility are still general in nature and not really clear, such as documents proving that the medical examination and treatment facility meets the conditions on facilities, medical equipment, and personnel organization suitable for the scope of professional activities of one of the prescribed organizational forms. These contents do not have specific regulations, so they depend on the analysis and assessment of the appraisal council.

Build sample profiles to support businesses

According to reports from departments, branches and sectors, the total number of conditional business licensing procedures in the province is currently 371. In 2023, the total number of dossiers received and processed for conditional business licensing procedures is 1,612, of which 8 are overdue.

In general, 11/13 departments, branches and sectors processed the dossiers within the time limit prescribed by law after receiving sufficient valid dossiers in terms of composition and content as prescribed.

However, through inspection, out of a total of 1,109 records, nearly 137 records were returned for the first supplement, accounting for 12% of the total number of records processed.

There are still difficulties for businesses in the process of implementing administrative procedures such as: procedural instructions are not clear and complete, the processing time for some documents is still relatively long, documents in some fields need to be edited and supplemented many times...

Deputy Director of the Department of Planning and Investment Le Thi Thuong said that, on the basis of the promulgated set of administrative procedures, departments and branches (with administrative procedures) need to research and develop sample documents so that businesses can copy, fill in information as required and publicly post them at the province's one-stop shop and on the websites of departments and branches.

For staff at the one-stop department (receiving and returning results), it is necessary to provide clear and complete instructions on filling out the application form. Special attention should be paid to additional application forms, which need to be monitored over time to notify people and businesses to resubmit their application forms.

For officers processing records, especially for amended and supplemented records, it is necessary to provide detailed instructions to people and businesses to ensure that records comply with legal regulations and minimize the need for additional records.

Regarding the procedures for certification of facilities eligible to build and convert fishing vessels, the Department of Planning and Investment has proposed that the Provincial People's Committee recommend the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to advise the Government to amend Decree No. 26 of the Government to remove difficulties and obstacles, creating conditions for facilities to build and convert fishing vessels to continue operating.

To facilitate production facilities and businesses, in the coming time, it is necessary to continue to shorten the processing time for conditional business licensing procedures, creating conditions for businesses to quickly complete procedures and go into operation.

Implement administrative procedure reform towards ensuring legality, efficiency, transparency and fairness in handling work, along with detecting and eliminating cumbersome and overlapping procedures. Develop and amend administrative procedures towards simplicity and convenience for individuals, organizations and businesses.

Standardize and promptly publicize on the websites of departments, agencies and branches, continue to simplify and minimize the time to perform administrative procedures. Strengthen propaganda, guidance and encourage enterprises to perform business registration procedures via electronic information networks and maintain the implementation of full-process public services for all administrative procedures.

Effectively implement the one-stop shop and inter-connected one-stop shop mechanisms and strongly apply information technology in handling administrative procedures, providing online public services and e-government.

Thanh Truc

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