020504

Vietnam: Business conditions in tourism, culture sector to be relaxed

The Hanoitimes – Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Ngoc Thien has approved a plan to remove or simplify 62 of 118 business conditions under the ministry’s management.
Under Decision No. 1396/QĐ-BVHTTDL, business conditions in karaoke, bar, advertising, sport, lodging and electronic game services will be removed.
The requirements that hotels, yachts and houses for rent must have electricity and clean water systems and that staff of lodging facilities must have knowledge of tourism will also be slashed.
However, conditions for travel firms will remain unchanged. Particularly, people in charge of local tours must be graduates from vocational schools of tourism or have equivalent certificates while college/university graduates majoring in tourism and those having qualifications for international tour operations are eligible to take charge of domestic tours.
Tour operation is a special field as the quality of tourism products depends on people in charge of marketing and providing services, so qualifications of tour guides are important when it comes to protecting customers’ interests.
The requirement that travel firms must deposit money at banks is also needed because this is a guarantee for coping with accidents or emergencies.
Operators of local tours must deposit VND100 million each, those of inbound tours VND250 million and those of outbound tours VND500 million. Those companies placing a VND500 million deposit can arrange tours in these three segments.
The ministry will submit a draft government decree amending decrees on business conditions to the government prior to October.
Following the government’s instruction, several other ministries have also accelerated the removal of cumbersome administrative procedures and business conditions to ease enterprises.
Under Decision No. 767 issued recently, the Ministry of Transport announced the elimination of 384 out of 570 business conditions under the ministry’s authority. The number is equivalent to 67.36 percent of the total business conditions in the transport sector.
The aviation sector has the largest number of business conditions to be simplified and cut, accounting for 74.36 percent of the total business conditions of the sector. It is followed by the rail sector with 73.08 percent of its business conditions being cut.
Meanwhile, the road sector will have 68.5 percent of its business conditions eliminated, the waterway sector will remove 67.34 percent of its conditions, and the maritime sector will cut 65.08 percent of its conditions.
The multi-modal transportation services and transport of dangerous goods will see the smallest number of slashed conditions, making up 61.43 percent of its total conditions.
Under the decision, the ministry asked relevant agencies to promptly review and compile legal documents based on the plan for the elimination of business conditions and submit them to the government before October 30 this year.
The Ministry of Finance is also considering removing and simplifying 188 business conditions under its authority before June 30 this year. The number accounts for 50.8 percent of the total business conditions regulated for 21 industries and sectors under the ministry’s authority.
To meet the target, the ministry proposed to revise five laws and 11 decrees, of which the revision of the decrees will be submitted to the government for approval and issuance according to simplified order and procedures so that the new regulations can be applied before June 30, 2018.
As for the five laws, the ministry suggested that it will report the revision to the government for consideration. Then, the Prime Minister can submit the revision to the National Assembly (NA) to add them in the NA’s legal building plans before June 30 this year.
Source: http://www.hanoitimes.vn/economy/2018/05/81E0C601/business-conditions-in-tourism-culture-sector-to-be-relaxed/