Hand to help foreign investors in twin cities

The e-regulations system is an online step-by-step guide on investment procedures. It gives access to the contact details and photos of the officials in charge, forms, time frame, costs and conditions for creating a company, leasing land and business contracts for both first time and existing investors.

The information is certified by the entities in charge of each step.

“With this turnkey e-regulations tool for business facilitation, I estimate it will save time for administrative procedures down to a half of time compared to a normal administrative activity,” said coordinator of the technical assistance UNCTAD Frank Grozel.

Grozel gave an example of taking few days to apply for company creation after the investors got all information for necessary steps.

“Especially, this investment facilitation will help to cut down unnecessary steps that bother investors and go directly to the targeted civil servants in charge,” added Grozel.

According to deputy director of the Foreign Investment Agency Nguyen Noi, e-regulations would focus on foreign investors with both versions in English and Vietnamese.

These initiatives are parts of a national effort led by the department of Planning and Investment in Ho Chi Minh City and Danang, with the financial support of the Luxembourg government and the technical assistance of UNCTAD.

Vietnam is the pilot country in Asia and one of the many other countries worldwide which have implemented the e-regulations.

In the early 2011, there will be a large communication campaign at both provincial and national level to promote awareness on investment procedures among foreign and local investors. Binh Dinh, Phu Yen, Vinh Phuc and Can Tho are next provinces which will deploy e-regulations.

“For the being time, this system is mainly used to present investment procedures but it can be applied to any administrative process,” said Noi.