In 2007, the Government of Viet Nam launched the Master Plan to Simplify Administrative Procedures in the fields of the State Governance (“Project 30”), with the goal to reduce administrative procedures by 30% as part of ambitious reforms to modernise the public service and simplify the regulatory environment for businesses. Project 30 supports the development of infrastructure, increased productivity, greater foreign direct investment and a high rate of growth. Administrative simplification efforts, once fully implemented, will enhance regulatory quality and stimulate competitiveness and equitable growth.

 

At the conclusion of a three-year programme of administrative simplification, the Government of Viet Nam invited the OECD to carry out an evaluation and provide guidance on how to build on this foundation, to set out a ten-year strategy on regulatory reform. In many countries, administrative simplification is the first step toward a broader policy for regulatory reform. The crisis of 2008 and its aftermath have made structural reform and competitiveness high priorities.

 

The report Administrative Simplification in Viet Nam: Supporting the Competitiveness of the Vietnamese Economy details Project 30 and related initiatives. Using international comparisons and incorporating experience from similar reforms in other countries, it explores how Viet Nam can rapidly bring about the full potential of Project 30 and introduce a complete range of regulatory reform instruments in the near future. The lessons learnt from the management of a major administrative simplification initiative in Viet Nam will be useful to other countries seeking to improve their regulatory framework and to reduce administrative burdens.

OECD recommends three key steps for action by the Government of Viet Nam:

• Adopt a single explicit, published government-wide regulatory policy to sustain economic and social progress. Vietnam should invest in building capacities for impact assessments to move towards evidence-based policy making, and support the Administrative Procedure Control Agency with necessary capacities to lead and implement the regulatory reform agenda.
• Strengthen government dialogue with citizens and business. The Advisory Council of Administrative Procedures Reform could be reformed to make it more dynamic and efficient, and to empower it with a clear set of roles and remit. It should be established as a permanent advocacy body and its membership should be extended.
• Make additional reductions. Further use of information and communications technologies in government holds promise of delivering substantial burden reductions. The full cataloguing of administrative procedures now needs to be completed with a similar exercise to inventory and streamline all the legal normative documents.

 

The OECD evaluation was presented and discussed at the:

• OECD Regulatory Policy Committee, 28-29 October 2010, Paris, France,
• ASEAN-OECD Workshop on Regulatory Reform, 25-26 November 2010, Hanoi, Viet Nam
• 2nd APEC Economic Committee Plenary Meeting, 19-20 September 2011, San Francisco, United States
• Workshop on Enhancing Regulatory Quality: International Experience and Solutions for Viet Nam, 14 October 2011, Hanoi, Viet Nam