Ministries submit plans to streamline business procedures before April 20

Prime Minister Le Minh Hung has urged ministries to submit plans to cut administrative procedures and business conditions ahead of April 20, as the Government steps up efforts to improve the business environment and reduce compliance burdens for people and enterprises.

On April 13, the Government’s Standing Committee convened a meeting on trimming administrative procedures, conditions, and regulated business sectors, alongside decentralizing the handling of administrative procedures in line with Conclusion 18 of the Central leadership.

Government pushes faster reform before end of Q2

At the meeting, Prime Minister Le Minh Hung said improving the business environment and reducing time and compliance costs is a key task to help Vietnam achieve double-digit growth. He emphasized that ministries should implement measures within the Government’s authority immediately.

The Prime Minister said ministries must take “substantial responsibility” and that ministers should be directly involved. He requested that, rather than waiting until the end of Q2, ministries propose to the Standing Government by April 20 plans to cut and reform administrative procedures and business conditions.

The Government Office and the Ministry of Justice will consolidate and submit the plan to the Government for approval within April.

Photo: VGP

Scope of regulated sectors and business conditions

According to reports presented at the meeting, Vietnam currently has 198 regulated conditional business sectors and 4,603 business conditions.

Under Conclusion 18, ministries are required to review and cut 30% of conditional sectors (about 60 sectors) and eliminate all unnecessary business conditions.

Targets for reducing time and compliance costs

The Government also set a target to reduce by 50% the time and cost of complying with administrative procedures for people and enterprises.

Ministries are instructed to promote decentralization, ensuring that no more than 30% of procedures in their domain are directly handled by the ministries themselves.

Decentralization and coordination with key agencies

The Prime Minister will assign deputy prime ministers, the Minister of Justice, the Public Security, the Interior, and the Government Office to work directly with ministries on reform plans, including cutting administrative procedures and conditions in restricted sectors.

Leading the Government also directed the Ministry of Justice, the Public Security, the Interior, and the Government Office to propose which procedures and conditions must be cut, and which should be upgraded through new technology and digital transformation to facilitate people and enterprises.

Ministers were asked to personally direct and thoroughly review administrative procedures within their purview to ensure they are easy to understand and implement.

Focus on substance, not only quantity

Prime Minister Le Minh Hung said unnecessary business conditions must be cut, while other conditions also need to be reviewed. He noted that while quantity matters, the substance and meaning of the conditions are even more important, and reform must genuinely reduce time and compliance costs.

He urged the Ministry of Justice and the Government Office to act as “gatekeepers” by tightly controlling administrative procedures and business conditions, and to be accountable if regulations that do not meet requirements are allowed to slip through.

During the reform process, agencies should listen to and absorb recommendations from businesses and associations.

Data infrastructure and “provide information once” principle

Ministries are also required to complete data infrastructure and restructure processes to promote data reuse in handling administrative procedures. The goal is that people and enterprises should only provide information once, while officials processing procedures should look up data that already exists.