HCMC – Each company inspection last year required an average of 9.8 hours and a cost of VND1.8 million, according to the Administrative Procedure Cost Index 2022 (APCI 2022) report.

The most time-consuming phases were file preparation and product quality testing, which took 1.8 hours and 3.4 hours on average, respectively.

The lengthy work was attributed to the lack of standardized procedures in administrative management among relevant agencies and technical glitches in the Vietnam National Single Window platform, according to local businesses.

The score for business inspection procedures ranked last among all categories in the report.

Meanwhile, there were improvements in investment approval procedures, with the average score increasing by 4.9 points compared to the APCI 2021.

Still, 4.7% of the 3,092 surveyed enterprises reported paying informal charges to carry out the required procedures for investment approval.

The report was compiled by the Government’s Advisory Council for Administrative Procedure Reform with the support of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Linkages for Small and Medium Enterprises (USAID LinkSME).