Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Improvements in the group ofinvestment administrative procedures are still slow and not yet in syncwith policies to attract investment at the local level.

The popularity of online public services has not also improvedsignificantly compared to previous years.

This information is included in the report AdministrativeProcedure Cost Index 2022 (APCI 2022) prepared by the Government’s AdvisoryCouncil for Administrative Procedure Reform with the support ofUSAID Linkages for Small & Medium Enterprises (USAID LinkSME).

The report indicates that although localities have made greatefforts in simplifying administrative procedures, lack of policy communicationand business dialogue, and insufficient planning are major barriers in reducingthe compliance burden for enterprises carrying out administrative procedures oninvestment.

The survey on 3,092 enterprises recorded that about 4.7% ofenterprises had paid unofficial costs to carry out investment procedures.

This rate has decreased significantly compared to previous years,according to the report.

According to the report, the group of investment administrativeprocedures had APCI 2022 scores increase by 4.9 points compared to APCI2021.

This is the group with the highest score among the nine groups ofadministrative procedures of APCI.

The survey said that part of the reason for the inadequacy in thegroup of investment administrative procedures was that many localities lackedmaster plans related to land use, construction planning, and environmentalinformation, which led to confusion, and lack of transparency in investmentapproval decisions of localities.

The lack of information shared among local government agenciesimposes burdens on compliance costs and legal risks for investors.

To overcome this situation, the formation of an information systemand national database on planning will help improve coordination among relevantlocal agencies in carrying out administrative procedures on investment.

Similarly, the sharing of information related to businessoperations, investment information systems and public service/information siteson investment procedures and processes at the levels of Government, theMinistry of Planning and Investment and localities will help reduce time andcosts for searching and updating information, increasing efficiency in theprocess of managing and implementing investment projects in Vietnam.

32.2 hours for a land procedure

The APCI 2022 report also shows that to carry out anadministrative procedure in the land group, each enterprise has to spend 32.2hours on average and the direct cost is about 3.8 million VND (160 USD).

The report shows that the steps involved in preparing andcompleting documents are still a burden for businesses, while"sub-procedures" still exist because the database system on land hasnot been established and widely applied, there is a lack of connection betweenland management agencies at all levels.

The implementation of online public services for administrativeprocedures on land is still modest.

Some 5% of the 3,092 enterprises participating in the survey saidthat they had submitted documents online, 1% of enterprises said to havereceived the results online.

Businesses have not yet been able to make the payment of taxobligations for the online land transaction.

The group of land administrative procedures has APCI 2022 scoresdown 1.2 points compared to APCI 2021.

The APCI score of the land administrative procedure group over thepast five years from 2018 to now has tended to slightly decrease, in which,2019 had the most positive change, last year showed signs of urgency of acomprehensive reform of land administrative procedures.

The Government, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmentand localities have implemented many reforms in land administrative proceduresin recent years, but more efforts are still needed to make this group ofadministrative procedures more convenient for businesses.

The group of land administrative procedures needed to focus onboosting the use of technology, perfecting the land information system and thedatabase of land and land-attached assets as the foundation for processreforms, procedure standardisation, and improvement for co-ordination amongrelevant agencies, suggested the report./.