On 17 March in Hanoi, an annual report on the index for administrative procedure compliance costs (APCI 2020) was released at a press conference. Minister and Chairman of the Office of the Government Mai Tien Dung, who is also Chairman of the Prime Minister’s Advisory Council for Administrative Procedure Reform (ACAPR), chaired the event.
   

Press Conference: Assessment Report on Administrative Procedure Compliance Cost Index (APCI) 2020
    
On this occasion, the Minister, Chairman of the Government Office awarded Certificates of Merit for 20 collectives and 19 individuals with outstanding achievements in administrative reform. On behalf of the European Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (EuroCham), Chairman Nicolas Audier received the Certificate from H.E. Mai Tien Dung.
   
    
    
EuroCham received Certificate of Merit from Minister, Chairman of Office of the Government for outstanding achievements in administrative reform
    
    
Also, Vice Chairman Nguyen Hai Minh received a Certificate of Merit individually from Minister, Chairman of Office of the Government for outstanding achievement in administrative reform
       
Built on a standard cost model and surveys at businesses in Vietnam’s 63 cities and provinces, since 2018, when it was released for the first time, the APCI annual report has been considered an important tool that objectively reflects the level of administrative reform, improvements to the business environment, and enforcement of policies and laws through analysing costs enterprises must pay to conduct administrative procedures in line with the law.
      

H.E. Mai Tien Dung speaking at the event
    
The group of taxation procedures ranked first in the APCI, with its overall improvement rate assessed at the highest level, up 5.6 points compared to 2019. Companies currently need 3.8 hours and VND11,600 to carry out one taxation procedure on average. Thai Binh province was the best performer in carrying out taxation administrative procedures, with an average of 0.9 hours. Second place went to administrative procedures for specialised inspections, which improved 5 points compared to 2019. It was followed by administrative procedures relating to the environment and business conditions, which were up 0.5 points and 0.2 points, respectively, compared to 2019. Conversely, the five remaining groups of starting a business, investment, construction, land, and cross-border trade recorded lower scores than in APCI 2019.
    
Speaking at the press conference, Minister Dung pointed out four reform lessons from APCI 2020, emphasising that the top priority for the Government, ministries, sectors, and localities is promoting the application of information technology and processing administrative procedures via electronic platforms in order to save costs for businesses.