| Ministry pledges to save developers time and money |
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(Listed Jun 30, 2008) |
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 The Ministry of Construction has promised to reduce the time taken to license real estate projects by two-thirds by streamlining the existing 33 procedures, a move hailed by developers as a “revolution.”
Chu Van Chung, director of the ministry’s Legal Office, said the office aimed to “cut time for licensing construction investment procedures from three to four years down to just one year.”
The ministry planned to delete seven of the requirements and merge several other procedures, Chung told a conference in Ho Chi Minh City Friday.
Minister Nguyen Hong Quan said the ministry will consult with companies to improve the plan before submitting it to the government for consideration next month.
More than 300 business representatives at the conference, who crowded the meeting hall of the city’s Reunification Palace, hailed the plan as a “revolution” in administrative reform.
Some said it had taken up to seven years for a project to go through all 33 steps. One project may require up to 50 approval stamps, some of which take a year to obtain.
Waiting for a license took 60 percent of the total time of a project, they said.
The delay in licensing housing projects had increased demand for accommodation in major cities, fueling recent price hikes.
Nguyen Van Duc, deputy director of Dat Lanh Real Estate Company, said his company had to wait for more than a year to get an approval for one of its projects.
However, Nguyen Xuan Quang, general director of Nam Long Investment Company, was concerned that efforts to cut procedures may overload state agencies.
He suggested a more flexible way of licensing based on a project’s scope.
Dang Hoang Vu, general director of Thanh Binh Property Company, said the government should also work to better monitor licensing agencies and penalize those that cause delays.
“How streamlined can the process be, if the government workers are [unwilling to implement it]?” one developer said. “It would be hard to help businesses speed up the project.”
Minister Quan said there were three major reasons for delays in licensing projects. These were: a developer’s lack of research into the correct procedures; the cumbersome policy; and bureaucrats’ unscientific work.
His ministry was “determined” to correct its procedural problems, he said, and recommended other ministries follow the Ministry of Construction’s lead.
Source: Thanhnien News |
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