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Trang Bom upgrades its image

Trang Bom’s local government sees PAR as a way to wash away the poverty left after the American War ended three decades ago
Breakthroughs in public administration reform have smoothed the way for residents of Trang Bom district, 50 km from HCM City, to open their own business ventures, making an area hard-hit by the American War economically self sufficient.

With reforms in four different areas of public administration - business licensing, land use rights, construction permission, and notary services - the district can now approve documents within five days, two days faster than the official approval deadlines.
Currently the majority of the district’s inhabitants earn a living from agriculture, including the cultivation of maize, cassava, coffee, sugarcane, pepper, and rambutan. But residents are now looking to expand business opportunities.
Private businesses are rare, mainly focusing on selling miscellaneous goods such as groceries and fertilizer, or services like motorbike repair, tailoring and or other small-scale cottage industries. However, these home-based businesses have contributed to the economic development of this poor district.
To boost the number of small businesses in the district, local leaders recognized that it would be necessary to create a transparent business environment to speed up the evolution of different economic sectors.
The main focus of the initiative was Public Administrative Reform, and specifically administrative procedure reform in business licensing.
Late last year, the district’s one-stop shop (OSS) office was set up to receive and return documents and papers from citizens in business licensing, land use rights, construction permission, and notary services. This department has only two officials on duty, but as a OSS it is more efficient for residents to submit documents there than run around to multiple departments to get paperwork settled.
“We really want to simplify licensing procedures to encourage people to run their own business in the most convenient way”, said Mr. Huynh Kim Tan, Vice Head of Trang Bom’s People’s Committee office.
The local government’s efforts seem to be effective. Within the first six months of the year more than 1,000 new business files were submitted at the OSS Department, a significant figure taking into account that there are only 3,800 households registered in the district.

Mr Nguyen Ba Sinh, the owner of a small grocery store located in Ward 4, said he was happy that the district government had created favorable conditions for people to register businesses.
“This is really a breakthrough compared to 1980 when nobody had the right to run their own business,” Mr Sinh said.

Procedural reform is just a small part of PAR activities in the district, where leaders are trying their best to create a new image away from the poverty stricken Trang Bom affected by the American War three decades ago.

07/12/2006