The Prime Minister’s Advisory Council for Administrative Procedure Reform convened its meeting in Hanoi on July 4 to review its performance in the first half of this year and draw out major tasks for the rest of 2014.

The council also discussed a draft project to combine procedures of notarising, registration for the ownership of land and assets related to land, and taxation.

According to Ngo Hai Phan, head of the Administrative Procedure Management Department at the Ministry of Justice, in the first six months of this year, all members of the council contributed helpful ideas on administrative regulations and procedures to legal bills and documents.

Between late 2013 and the first months of 2014, the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry and other members of the council made many comments to a Government’s draft resolution on major focuses of administrative procedure reform in the building and implementation of land use projects with an aim to improving business environment, better known as Resolution 43/NQ-CP.

The resolution gave guidelines for the amendment of Laws on Investment, Enterprises and other laws, ensuring a transparent, smooth and effective legal framework for investment activities, while contributing to bettering the efficiency of administrative procedure and reducing cost for investors, thus increasing the national competitiveness.

The council also gave advices to a number of proposals, including those on one-stop-shop mechanism for procedures of the registration of birth, residence and health insurance for children under the age of six, and the application of e-customs.

In the last six months of this year, the council will focus on giving initiatives on administrative reform in the fields if food safety, business dissolution, land use for enterprises, ground clearance and compensation, and the registration for poor households.

According to Minister of Justice Ha Hung Cuong, who is also head of the council, administrative procedure reform is a top priority in enhancing the national competitiveness.

He urged the members of the council to make more efforts to give effective advices on administrative regulations for legal documents, especially those related to the implementation of the Constitution.

During the meeting, the council also tabled a plan to assess the implementation of Resolution 43/NQ-CP.-VNA