The Programme for Enhancing Regulatory Quality (PERQ) will contribute to ensuring a transparent environment that is a critical factor to improve the economy’s competitiveness and attract more investment.

Dr. Nguyen Dinh Cung, Vice Director of the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM), delivered the statement at a ceremony to launch the PERQ in Hanoi on August 11.

According to statistics, a large volume of documents are adopted annually, impacting on people’s lives and enterprises, but their quality fail to catch up with their quantity.

After examining over 5,700 administrative procedures, the Government Office estimated that it could save 1.45 billion USD each year if the simplification and cancellation of unnecessary regulations and procedures.

The Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI) shows that transparence in localities fell, while unofficial expenditures rose. A transparence index survey in 2010 dedicates 75 percent of the surveyed enterprises said they faced difficulties to get access to information.

Transparence helps reduce unofficial spending and increase equality for businesses, Cung said, adding that transparence must be combined with accountability.

Ngo Hai Phan, Head of the Government Office’s Administrative Reform Department, stressed administrative reform is an important step to perform transparence, thereby contributing to constitutional reform.

The PERQ will promote a modern regulatory management system in Vietnam by providing government agencies, the National Assembly, citizens and businesses with the resources they need to analyse and improve the quality of policies and legal documents.

Developed jointly by CIEM, the Ministry of Planning and Investment, and the US Agency for International Development’s Vietnam Competitiveness Initiative (USAID/VNCI), the new programme will help decision makers eliminate regulations that impose unnecessary costs on the community, impede innovation, and stifle competitiveness./.