NEW EFFORTS TO GET RID OF CHRONIC RED TAPE
On February 16, 2000, Vietnam Communist Party government Prime Minister Phan Van Khai signed three decrees, the purposes of which are to implement the "administrative reform."
Of the three, Decree #02 sets rules for business registration, Decree #03 is for directives to execute a number of provisions in the new Enterprise Law. The third, Decision #19, orders the elimination of dozens of business licenses for firms which are regulated by the new law.
The new decrees, especially the decision #19 are seen by many businessmen as Hanoi's serious effort to refurbish its appearance to attract new investors and persuade the disappointed current investors to stay instead of leaving the country. Hanoi is trying to show the business world that it has created a favorable, simplified and sound environment for business.
Decision #19 lists 84 permits and licenses to be repealed by the new law covering a wide range of business sectors, including science, technology, the environment, maritime products, finance, customs, industry, tourism, post, and health, according to the Hanoi state-controlled news agency (VNA).
The Decision also promises that other unnecessary business licenses will be repealed in the near future.
According to the decision, ministries or agencies that need specific licenses to be imposed on businesses in their sectors must submit proposals to the prime minister for final approval. Decree #02 also insists that to establish enterprises and registration for business are the rights of the citizens, and the agencies in charge of registration "shall not demand bribes, or embarrass the applicants..."
Some business executive directors welcomed the new decree as the most specific one, which determines the 84 names of licenses and permits, instead of vague wording usually seen in the past. They believed that the directives could be effective in a near future despite many difficulties lying ahead.
Many businessmen however, showed their worries and doubts. An article in Nhan Dan newspaper even said there still existed many indications of "citizen tormenting" administrative procedures.
Other facts also indicate internal disagreement in the leadership. A few days before Khai signed the papers, Hanoi Minister of Planning and Investment Tran Xuan Gia had announced that 98 licenses would be revoked. But at last, only 84 were eliminated.
An article in Lao Dong Newspaper said that the omitted 14 consist of 8 that had not been used for a very long time (without the government's awareness), and the remaining 6 are retained after adamant refusal to get rid of them from the related ministries and branches.
Nguyen Duc Thanh, director of Ho Tay (West Lake) Entertainment Services Corp. said the protests indicated that the conflict between the two sides - old and new - is still a very bitter fighting in the party leadership.
Mr. Thanh noted that in the regulatory process in today's Vietnam, the scope of a law is restricted by a decree, and the decree is further restricted at the ministries, and so on down to the lowest government level where the law has not much to do with. He also said that the decree vests the ministries with the power of making decision on a number of issues. His question was whether the ministries would "pigeon-hole" or "tighten harder" the issues.
Le Dang Doanh, director of the Economic Management and Study Institute said that there will be numerous obstacles on the way implementing the Enterprise Law and decrees. A good example: That the ministries must get the prime minister's approval for any newly created license, has been instructed years ago, but "we have failed to realize it."
Doanh disclosed that paperwork load in the ministries is so large that their officials themselves are not certain about how many kinds of licenses and permits they are responsible for.
Moreover, he said that ministries and branches still failed to determine concrete conditions the enterprises were required to meet, and standards of pollution, smog, fire prevention, food safety...
The uncontrolled redtapism has actually existed since 1954 in North Vietnam after Ho Chi Minh and his government moved to Hanoi to assume control all over the half of the country north of the 17th Parallel. It has been rampant beyond the party leadership controlling ability since 1975 after the Communists seized South Vietnam.
Red tape has been one of the products of Communism that could be seen in most Stalinist states but it seems worst in the current regime in Vietnam.
Probably the guerrilla-styled management that the Communist leaders of all ranks have been used to in war dictates their behavior when coming to power. Communist leaders always play tricks in dealing with not only politic or military matters but also in economic relations.
They are short-sighted and extremely greedy, ready to act for any quick chicken-feed, disregarding larger, lasting interests. Besides, lack of formal education makes them be at a loss and indecisive when facing large-scale problems, thus causes delay and every agreement, law, regulation. All such documents are subject to sudden changes overnight without advanced notices.
When a new law is enacted, regulatory process translated it into implementing tasks, and that is done in every country. It is the same process in Vietnam but as they go on the way down to local levels, the laws become more difficult to be enforced.
Its too early to expect how well the new decrees would do businessmen good help.
Foreign investors should not be optimistic too soon. In Vietnam today, deeds by the government and its officials are often unpredictable. Vietnamese abroad who invest in Vietnam have always prepared themselves for every situation that might happen, for better or for worse, as far as possible in their imagination.
Vietnam Communist supreme leaders, Ho Chi Minh, Le Duan, Truong Chinh and all of their successors, each has many times called for "administrative reform."
If the Vietnam Communist regime exists for 10 more years, there could be another similar reform to be launched again.
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