Hanoi (VNA) - An annual report on the index for administrative procedure compliance costs in 2020 (APCI 2020) was released at a press conference on March 17 chaired by Minister and Chairman of the Government Office Mai Tien Dung, who is also Chairman of the Prime Minister’s Advisory Council for Administrative Procedure Reform.

The group of taxation procedures ranked first in the APCI, with its overall improvement rate assessed at the highest level, up 5.6 points compared to 2019.

Companies currently need 3.8 hours and 11,600 VND to carry out one taxation procedure on average.

Thai Binh province was the best performer in carrying out taxation administrative procedures, with an average of 0.9 hours.

Second place went to administrative procedures for specialised inspections, which improved 5 points compared to 2019.

It was followed by administrative procedures relating to the environment and business conditions, which were up 0.5 points and 0.2 points, respectively, compared to 2019.

Conversely, the five remaining groups of starting a business, investment, construction, land, and cross-border trade recorded lower scores than in APCI 2019.

Speaking at the press conference, Minister Dung pointed out four reform lessons from APCI 2020, emphasising that the top priority for the Government, ministries, sectors, and localities is promoting the application of information technology and processing administrative procedures via electronic platforms in order to save costs for businesses.

Built on a standard cost model and surveys at businesses in Vietnam’s 63 cities and provinces, since 2018, when it was released for the first time, the APCI annual report has been considered an important tool that objectively reflects the level of administrative reform, improvements to the business environment, and enforcement of policies and laws through analysing costs enterprises must pay to conduct administrative procedures in line with the law./.