Ministries, agencies look to cut red tape

Many ministries and agencies have proposed the adjustment and elimination of hundreds of redundant administrative procedures as part of a project on administrative procedure simplification in the fields of State management.

Under the project—known as Project 30—the Government will require all ministries, agencies and local authorities to review and streamline at least 30 per cent of their administrative procedures during the 2007-10 period.

Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan reported that after reviewing 291 administrative procedures, the ministry had proposed to cut 42, replace 25 and adjust 156, roughly doubling the project's target.

Regarding 13 priority administrative procedures, the ministry proposed to eliminate two administrative procedures and change 11 others, fulfilling 100 per cent of the administrative procedure simplification target.

The simplification would help the ministry save VND2 trillion (US$106 million) each year, she said.

Meanwhile, Health Minister Nguyen Quoc Trieu reported that the ministry had proposed to adjust 67-68 per cent of 260 administrative procedures and to cut 30 others, helping save around VND14 billion ($742,000).

The ministry was focused on reviewing and cutting unnecessary and unreasonable administrative procedures to improve the quality of regulations relating to administrative procedures, he said.

Reviewing 148 administrative procedures, the Ministry of Public Security proposed to simplify 114 of them.

The Ministry of Planning and Investment reported that it had proposed to simplify 388 and eliminate 36 out of 503 reviewed administrative procedures.

According to the ministry, people and businesses have had to spend more than VND845 billion ($44.7 million) each year on carrying out administrative procedures managed by the ministry, and the simplification would help save 42.8 per cent of the fees.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported that it had proposed to streamline 48 out of 55 reviewed administrative procedures.

Many localities have reported their review results, including central Quang Binh Province, which proposed to simplify 927 out of 1353 reviewed administrative procedures, and southern Bac Lieu Province, which planned to streamline 803, replace 34 and eliminate 91 out of 1,526 reviewed administrative procedures.