VietNamNet Bridge - While the government has been asked to remove business barriers to create favorable conditions for investors, the Ministry of Health (MOH) plans to create a new regulation that will require enterprises to spend VND1.1 trillion more a year.

“I cannot understand why MOH wants us to wait two more days to receive the certificate on meeting the requirements on imports to Vietnam,” said Nguyen Quang Hien, the owner of a food additive import company.

“With the new scheme MOH is going to impose, we will have to pay VND2.2 million more for every container of goods,” he said.

Hien’s company imports soya lecithin from Argentina and receives goods at the Hai Phong Port. Each container of imports is valued at $20,000.

Explaining additional expenses, Hien said it is expected that under the new scheme, his imports would have to be left at the port for five more days, which means an additional storage fee of $60, or VND1.3 million. 

He will have to pay VND600,000 in bank loan interest for each container, and VND300,000 to workers who take care of the procedures.

With the current regulation, importers can expect to receive a certificate on meeting the requirements on imports to Vietnam after inspection centers finish examining goods. 

Under the proposed regulation, the results of the examination will not be given to import companies as soon as the examination is completed, but will be submitted to the food safety management agency. 

Only two days later will the agency give the results of the examinations to businesses.

“As far as I know, the food safety department is a state management agency, not an inspection unit. Why does it need to keep the examination results for two days,” Hieu said.

He said that the new scheme of MOH would not improve the management of food imports, but would only burden Vietnamese importers and help foreign shipping firms earn more money.

It is estimated that 500,000 containers of food additives are imported to Vietnam a year. 

If importers have to pay VND2.2 million more for every container, the total additional expenses businesses would have to pay would be up to VND1.1 trillion.

Nguyen Hoai Nam, deputy secretary general of the Vietnam Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), said that MOH’s proposed regulation was not the only barrier set by management agencies for domestic enterprises.

Nam said dozens of unreasonable regulations were being applied in the seafood sector.

Circular No 48, for example, stipulates that state agencies can receive documents for inspection of seafood exports only in Hanoi.  

Pham Huyen