Mr. Thang Van Phuc, Vice Minister of Home Affairs, Secretary General of the Government’s Steering Committee on Public Administrative Reform, is delivering a speech at the Launching Ceremony of Hung Yen BusinessPortal on 4 April 2007

“…First of all, may I congratulate and express my appreciation for the initiative of developing the Business and Information Portal (BusinessPortal). This is obviously the right step which is entirely in line with the overall effort in public administrative reform. The objectives, content, particularly the operational functions which provide public services of the BusinessPortal certainly contribute a great deal to the reform of administrative procedures and of the investment and business environment for enterprises at the provincial level.

After being put into operation in some provinces, BusinessPortal should be continuously improved and upgraded on the basis of comments by users and by agencies which are directly involved in operating the product in order to make BusinessPortal more and more responsive to the needs. The sustainability, effectiveness and efficiency of the product should be duly taken into account. I think that one very possible option will be having it evaluated by an independent council, standardizing the product and having it replicated in other provinces to maximize its impacts and usefulness…”
 

Mr. Doan Anh Quan, Director of Hung Yen Department of Planning and Investment

“…We are very proud to be the first province which initiate and deploy BusinessPortal for the purpose of providing business registration, tax code registration and seal making services to enterprises on one-stop-shop basis. After one year of implementation, the BusinessPortal has been effectively operational in Hung Yen. The whole procedures on business registration have been all handled by computer or through the Internet. We have received and process numerous business registration dossiers which are submitted on line, enabling us to reduce significantly the time and costs in handling these procedures. This has been highly appreciated by the business community as well as by the provincial authorities.

The software on business registration, tax code registration, seal making and other related software for the operationalization of BusinessPortal are developed in an open and flexible manner, allowing us to make changes or modifications when necessary. In the case of Hung Yen, this is only the initial phase of a comprehensive project on the application of information technology and of Internet in provincial economic governance in general and in improving the work performance of Hung Yen DPI in particularly. In a very near future, the Hung Yen Business Portal will be further expanded and developed to reflect the new demand in the province. The most imperative demands which will be addressed in the next few months will be the software on investment projects which will be developed on the basis of the existing enterprise database, household business registration software, provision of other on-line public services like business licensing, investment project registration and appraisal software, capital construction management software, development of a business-to-business (B2B) platform for enterprises in Hung Yen…”

Mr. Nguyen Van Tuan, Vice Chairman of Nam Dinh People’s Committee

“…Application of the BusinessPortal is one of the latest efforts by Nam Dinh to improve the business environment in the province. The Nam Dinh Business Information Portal will be a reliable provider of business information, investment opportunities, guidance on administrative procedures, business linkage opportunities in Nam Dinh for business and investors. What we highly appreciate about BusinessPortal is the application of information technology and the Internet to providing public services to enterprises. The BusinessPortal will be the important foundation for Nam Dinh to provide business registration, tax code registration and seal making services to enterprises on one-stop-shop basis, enabling us to further reducing unnecessary administrative procedures…”

Mr. Doan Ngoc Minh, Head of the Enterprise Department, Quang Nam Department of Planning and Investment

“…Immediately after the BusinessPortal became operational in Quang Nam, the handling of business registration procedures for enterprises have been tremendously improved. The time spent on processing business registration procedures have been considerably reduced thanks to the fact that all of the paperwork is now processed on computer. Many enterprises have successfully completed business registration procedures through the Internet. This helps to improve a great deal the professionalism of the Enterprise Department. Furthermore, the Quang Nam Business Portal has become an effective tool to promote the business environment in Quang Nam.
To date, registrars of the Enterprise Department can take full control of the operationalization, use and administration procedures of BusinessPortal. Easy-to-use is one of the most prominent strengths of BusinessPortal. Even more important than that, it guarantees a linkage between the handling of business registration dossiers and the updating of information on the Portal. This allows enterprise database and information is automatically and continuously updated into the Portal…”

Mr. Dau Anh Tuan, Legal Department, Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry
 

“…Development of BusinessPortal is apparently an effective and useful initiative. I believe that BusinessPortal, if adopted and well-performed by local governments, will be one of the most obvious proof for a transparent and business-friendly environment.

With this important tool, investors can easily find information on investment climate in a province, including information on investment potential, investment opportunities, and administrative procedures. BusinessPortal will be a bridge, narrowing the gap between the local authorities and the business community and investors. It also facilitates the direct interaction between the government and the business. The portal is very helpful in reforming administrative procedures, and in reducing time and costs unnecessarily spent on unneeded administrative procedures. Especially, BusinessPortal helps to improve the coordination between relevant government agencies, and to meet the new demands in terms of economic governance in a new context of development.

With such benefits and with my own observation of the initial results and impacts produced by the provinces which adopted BusinessPortal recently, I strongly believe that this will be a model of success…”
 

Mr. Rudi Schuetz, Senior Technical Advisor, EU Private Sector Support Programme

“…First of all, I would like to sincerely congratulate the success of BusinessPortal. In my assessment, this is truly a government – to – business (G2B) portal in its real sense. A true G2B must be one through which the Government can interact with the public and the business community through provision of information and of on-line public services. BusinessPortal has been successful in both of these two criteria. Particularly, BusinessPortal has created an on-line dialogue platform for local government and the business community. The accessibility to information and the transparency in handling of public services have been significantly improved. These issues are of great importance from the perspective of investment promotion and enterprise development. I think that if the existing powerful foundation of the portal can be further expanded, with one module on business to business platform (B2B) built in, BusinessPortal will definitely bring about more benefits for the business community. We also hope that we will go in the same direction by supporting Hai Phong Department of Planning and Investment to deploy the portal in the city …”

Ms. Tran Thi Dep, Deputy Director of An Giang Department of Planning and Investment

“…We are very impressive by the BusinessPortal. This is a product which is in line with efforts by local governments in modernizing public services to enterprises and in improving the transparency and accessibility to information. The product has proven that it excels other products of the same functions. That is the reason why An Giang has decided to deploy the software and to develop the Business and Investment Information Portal.
We strongly believe that with the use of BusinessPortal in An Giang, the provision of three market entry services including business registration, tax code registration and seal making will be further improved and modernized. We do hope that BusinessPortal will be continuously improved and upgraded with new functions developed to address better and better the continuously changing demands at provinces …”

Mr. Le Van Phuc, Director of Quang Binh Department of Planning and Investment

“…Business and Investment Information Portal is an important tool for the Department of Planning and Investment to address better and better the demand for business information and for public services of enterprises and investors. The Quang Binh Business Portal is also a great information channel through which the province can introduce its potential to domestic and foreign investors. In the coming time, besides putting the portal into full use, especially in order to provide business registration services to enterprises, we will continue to improve the content and develop an English version of the portal. It is our strong belief that by adopting BusinessPortal, we have taken the right step to provide more benefits for business and investors in Quang Binh.

What makes us very impressive about BusinessPortal is the ease in using it. It is also developed in an open and flexible manner. These features are very important in making fast changes to adapt to changes in the administrative forms or in the prevailing laws related to business registration…”