The business community has many pressing issues with the Ministry of Industry and Trade

It is so hard for enterprises to deal with policies

44 gas trading companies crossed the country to participate in a Conference held to consult organizations and individuals about regulations on administrative procedures of the Industry and Trade sectoron the morning of September 27th2016 to complain about the inadequacy of policies. According to many companies’ opinions, Decree No.19/2016/ND-CPonthe liquid petroleum gas business taking effect on May 15thseverely affected gas trading companies.

Mr. Tran TrungNhat, Director of Thai Duong Gas Company (TayNinh), was very strident with the provisions of Decree 19 when applied to thesituation of his company. Mr. Nhat said that the Decree took effect differentlyin each local area. In particular,many licenseshad expired,but some local governments granted new licenses for two years,other local governments only granted for 3 months, thus making it difficult for the business community.

“In less than 6 years, 2 Decrees on gas business have been issued, but although the new Decree has taken effect, the business conditions are still contradictory, making it difficult for enterprises. It is so hard for enterprises to deal with these policies.", said Mr. Nhat.

According to a gas trading company from BinhDinh, the regulation that enterprises must have the number of all kinds of LPG cylinders (excluding LPG mini bottles) qualified to circulate on the market that were owned by traders with a minimum total capacity of 2.62 million liters wasdifficult to do with the companies in remote areas with low population density.

It is estimated that, to meet the conditions, enterprises must invest at least several tens of thousands of 12 kg gas cylinders, thereforethey must spend about 4 – 5 billion vndon cylinders, not to mention other costs like workshops, storage and labor, etc.But more importantly, this number of bottles will not be used entirely, and will take up storagespace, just to "deal" with business conditions.

"The regulations should be only applied to large local areas with dense populations, but it will be difficult for many businesses in remote areas with low population.", suggested this businessman.

Another business community’s problem was highlighted under the management of the Ministry of Industry and Trade; car imports. Mr. Nguyen Tuan, Director of PhucThienAn Company, representing 50 car importers, directly questioned Deputy Minister Tran QuocKhanh: “Circular No.20/2011/TT-BCT on importing cars has been abolished since July 1st2016 as prescribed. It has been nearly 3 months since then, but we still cannot import cars?"

Another company in the automotive sector also questioned that the regulations of the Ministry of Industry and Trade are administrative procedures or business conditions. Because of the requirements issued in Circular No.20, enterprises which are not authorized by manufactures cannot participate in the market.

Referring to the issue of policy development, Mr. Truong ThanhDuc, Director of Basico Law Firm said that the Ministry of Industry and Trade was issuing regulations about the size and quantity of many industries, which led to the situation that many small companies cannot participate in the market. The situation was happening in not only the automobile or gas industry, but also other sectors, such as rice, fertilizer, petroleum, etc., which made many small companies unable to participate.

Mr. Duc said that the provisions above violated the regulations of enterprises’ rights in the Law on Enterprises; violated the regulations on discrimination between enterprises and went against the principlesof supporting the development of enterprises in accordance with Resolution No.35/2016/NQ-CP of the Government.

The Ministry’s words are not just empty words(!?)

Responding to the comments raised during the conference, Mr. Tran QuocKhanh said that the comments at the conference are diverse, providing the Ministry of Industry and Trade with many ideas from administrative procedures, business conditions, philosophy of building policy and legislation in the current period.

Mr. Khanh affirmed: “We were aware of the problems. Today, once again we can listen to the opinions of the business community, so the Ministrybecomes more confident in proposing the Government to amend Decree No.19 and other documents".

The Deputy Minister said, the Conference was held to consult citizens and businesses, so the Ministry of Industry and Tradewould acquire all comments. The Ministry’s words were not just empty words! Before thisConference, the Minister of Industry and Trade had held a meeting and decided on many important issues. "The Ministry of Industry and Trade decided to abolish Circular No.37/2015/TT-BCT on the testing formaldehyde content of textile products, review Circular No.44/2012/TT-BCT to simplify procedures for chemicals, and direct the issues related to Decree No.19.", Mr.Khanh provided more information.

“In particular, from now until the amending of Decree No.19 to become more harmonized between objectives and interests, how the Department of Industry and Trade and companies behave, according to Mr. Khanh, is a difficult question. Because whatever you want to say, Decree No.19 has taken effect, so the Prime Minister or the Ministry of Industry and Trade do not have the authority to change the regulations of the Government. We will study and work with the Ministry of Justice in order to have more time to amend Decree 19.”

About the philosophy of policy and law development that Mr. Duc mentioned, Mr. Khanh admitted this is a lesson for the Government. However, “I hope that we can work together and offer a suggestion in a calm way. No one developed a policy to “kill” small and medium enterprises. Such accusationsare false!” explained Mr. Khanh.

But the Deputy Ministeralso agreed with the view of intervention to re-establish the market order is no longer appropriate, so the Ministry would take into account the revision to abolish unnecessary regulations and create favorable conditions for the business community.