Civil servants act in new unusual ways!
In the past, before PAR, the cadres and civil servants in Vinh Long province were bossy, harassing, and keen on authority and created difficulties for enterprises and people when handling administrative procedures. Business registration procedures were cumbersome and only being reformed slowly. Many businesses/enterprises and people had to return many times to relevant administrative agencies to complete documents which cost them a lot of time, effort and money (for gifts for staff). Procedures for new business registration, for example took over half a month, while procedures for changing the business operation also took at least up to 5 to 8 days. Recently, however, administrative procedures reform has created a lot of change in cadres’ actions and mindsets. Citizens in Vinh Long say cadres are more and more responsible and more friendly than before.

Now, in the Vinh Long Department of Planning and Investment, the Business Registration Office solved all business registration files at a rate of 1 to 2 days per file. This is also the case in districts and towns. The Business Registration Office also helps enterprises to process almost all administrative tasks such as registering investment projects, establishing enterprises, registering tax codes, making agreements on specific construction plans, compensation for site clearance, renting or provision of land, construction permits, environmental assessments, and paying accompanying fees.

One typical example is Mr. Thanh, a young boss with a passion for business, who, processed rice for over 10 years. In early May 2006, he decided to establish Phuoc Thanh IV Trade and Production Company Ltd, focusing on processing food for export and domestic demand, trading on rice, broken rice and bran, and renting storehouses. Mr. Thanh said, “To obtain a business certificate, I only needed to come to the Business Registration Office under the Vinh Long Department of Planning and Investment. Here I was provided all the information (by the cadres) about priority policies, the aims of economic development and orientations to attract investment of the province, market potential and investment opportunities of investors, while at the same time they instructed me on the business registration procedures. All the tasks that used to be done by enterprises themselves, now are done by the cadres of the Business Registration Office. The cadres from the Business Registration Office also came to the scene to measure dust, noise, and pollution level because my enterprise has 8 rice-polishing machines. They were very friendly and did not ask for any fee. Since registration it took about 10 days to get the business certificate.”

Now Mr. Thanh’s enterprise has a factory of 2,000 meter squares, right by the bank of river, making it easy for his 30 workers to transport rice, broken rice and bran. Each day they process about 30 tons of rice.