22 administrative procedures in Health sector will be implemented “Single window”

Professional activities at Bac Thang Long Industrial Park Customs Branch (Hanoi Customs Branch). Photo: N.Linh

The Ministry of Health has connected with the National Single Window for 5 administrative procedures related to import and export goods including Granting Certificate of the state inspection agency for imported food quality; Registration for quick food test document; Licensing import of medical equipment; import procedures for cosmetics which already sell in Vietnam; import procedures for finished medicines which have registration numbers in Vietnam.

From 6/2015 to 24/8/2017, the Ministry of Health handled more than 46,500 dossiers of 2,225 export-import enterprises operating in the fields related to 5 procedures as above.

According to the Ministry of Finance, although the Ministry of Health has actively implemented the National Single Window and change in the method of implementing administrative procedures, moving step by step from manual handwriting on paper to electronic files, in fact, implementing procedure on the National Single Window mechanism of Ministries is just an electronic action some of the steps in the procedure; Mechanical transfer of some forms of electronic documents. Most dossiers still require submitting hard copy or scanning and sending in an attached form. Ministry of Finance said that this is a common situation which happens in many ministries, not just only in the Ministry of Health.

According to the Ministry of Finance, this does not only create redundancies and overlap information and documents but also reduces the performance efficiency of IT systems.

In order to promote the implementation of the National Single Window mechanism, the Ministry of Finance (General Department of Vietnam Customs) suggested that the ministries should review all kinds of papers and documents that are really necessary. Thereby, the ministries will have a plan to simplify dossiers and vouchers submitted in order to ensure transparency and efficiency in state management.

In parallel, the Ministry of Finance also requested the Ministry of Health to review and improve the legal basis and administrative procedures for the implementation of the National Single Window mechanism; To ensure the connectivity, systematicity, security, information and database security for information technology systems in order to guarantee operating smoothly for the National Single Window mechanism; ASEAN Single Window.

At the same time, strengthening the training, propaganda, support people and businesses to understand and voluntarily participate in the National Single Window.