ne door – One procedure

According to a report of Doing Business 2017, the access to electricity indicator was one of the five indicators obtaining the best improvement in terms of business environment of Vietnam in 2016. In details, in comparison with the year 2015, the number of procedures was diminished from 6 to 5 procedures, the processing duration was reduced from 59 days to 46 days. As a result, the general Vietnam business environment index was improved considerably and moved upward 9 levels against the last year, which had been the biggest progress since 2008.

Although progressing quite many levels and now ranking 7^th in ASEAN countries, the access to electricity duration of Vietnam is still lengthy (46 days), meanwhile the average indicator of ASEAN 4 countries is 35 days.

The Government requests that in 2017 Vietnam shall diminish the access to electricity duration to 35 days and by the year 2020 Vietnam shall be listed in ASEAN 4. This is really not an easy puzzle, because as the time passes, shortening access to electricity duration will be more complicated and increasingly difficult.

“Moreover, not only we change, other countries will promote their reforms. Therefore, the chance for Vietnam to improve our rank will be more challenging” said Doctor Nguyen Minh Thao – Head of Business Environment and Competitiveness Ability Division under the Central Institute of Economic Research and Management.

With a view to improvement of access to electricity indicator, one of the possible breakthroughs is administrative reform, based on which the duration can be shortened. At present, there are five procedures in Vietnam access to electricity indicator; meanwhile there are only three procedures in Timor-Leste; and four procedures in Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Cambodia, etc.

According to Doctor Nguyen Minh Thao, the best way to go is that the power sector should become the only door to execute the whole access to electricity process. Enterprises will have to work with EVN as the “one door”. EVN then will deal with procedures in their own system and work with the state management bodies by themselves. By doing this, we will have only one procedure to follow. In particular, EVN shall be able to control the whole process by which the duration shall be definitely shortened.

Synchronous coordination is needed

Mr. Nguyen Quoc Dung – Director of Business Department of EVN stated that during the past years EVN has drastically executed solutions to diminish the duration as well as improve the access to electricity indicator.

In particular, EVN has developed an access to electricity procedure which has been absolutely applied by their subsidiaries in business activities and customer services on “three easy” principle: “Easy to access – Easy to be involved – Easy to supervise”. All the transactions with customers such as receiving documents, answering, signing construction contracts for power projects, accepting, signing power supply agreements, etc. have been performed according to “one door” scheme via Customer Transaction Offices. 

EVN has promoted application of information technology, received customers’ inquiries via several channels such as customer transaction offices or websites, supervised implementation progress via online applications, etc. Moreover, during the recent years, EVN has made electricity tariff public and transparent; improved electricity supply quality and no more unexpected power interruptions happen.

To further shorten access to electricity duration, a robust participation of state management bodies, local authorities and investors themselves will be needed. Because at present, the time for designing and constructing substations by customers lasts 20 days; and the time required for licensing and road excavating by the state management bodies is 15 days.

According to Doctor Nguyen Minh Thao, a vigorous participation of relevant organizations will be a determinant for the success. Although EVN becomes the only door and we have to follow only one procedure, a good coordination among relevant organizations will be required.

“In particular, the Government has to strengthen their implementation supervision mechanisms; assign clear responsibilities to leaders of organizations when processes and procedures are not properly observed, etc. At the same time, a procedure for handling “inter – organizational one door” at the national level and synchronizing the information technology systems between EVN and state management bodies of localities should be in place”, emphasized Doctor Nguyen Minh Thao.

According to EVN’s top management, in the coming time, EVN and their subsidiaries will make their best efforts to improve the access to electricity indicator, enhance the transparency of electricity tariff, better customer service quality, improve power supply reliability to increase the competitiveness of the economy, better and better satisfy the customers’ and society’s electricity demands. However, with the aim of realizing the objective of diminishing access to electricity indicator to 35 days in 2017, a robust and synchronous involvement of local authorities and investors will be needed. 

Duration, procedures for access to electricity of Vietnam according to the report of Doing Business from 2014 - 2016: