UNDP and CCI contribute to the improvement of the process of issuing permits and licenses in Uzbekistan
04/03/2015 13:36
UNDP and CCI contribute to the improvement of the process of issuing permits and licenses in Uzbekistan
04/03/2015 13:36
Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- The development of inter-agency cooperation is one of the one of the priority areas for the improvement of the business climate in Uzbekistan and an important step towards simplifying the procedures of issuing permits and licenses.
At the present time, the legislation of Uzbekistan identifies 198 types of permit documents (Resolution of Cabinet of Ministers, No.225 dated 08.15.2013) and 64 specified services requiring a license (Resolution of Cabinet of Ministers No. 236 dated 28.06.2002). It should be noted that during 2011–2014 a considerable number of permits (167 or 54.2%) and licenses (11 or 15%) regulating the activities of business entities was reduced. In addition, the procedures have been simplified for obtaining more than 40 types of permits and licenses. Nevertheless, there is still a need for further reduction and simplification of regulations influencing business activity.
Today, in order to obtain a permit or license in Uzbekistan, businesses have to submit a formal request accompanied by a certain set of documents, thus, entrepreneurs often have to visit a large number of state agencies to collect them. However, the provision of certain documents may be redundant, which increases amount of time and costs needed to comply with the procedures. To address these issues, the Presidential Decree No. 4609 dated April 7, 2014, prohibited the state agencies from requiring documents and information from entrepreneurs if these documents are already available in other state bodies. In this regard, the Government of Uzbekistan adopted a resolution No. 377 dated December 31, 2014, which prescribed steps for further improvement of the information exchange between ministries and state agencies through creation of appropriate databases and establishment of paperless interaction between them.
Given that entrepreneurs often have make considerable efforts in the process of collecting all the documents required for the issuance of a license or permit, and taking into account the active introduction in "E-Government" system in Uzbekistan, the establishment of electronic inter-agency cooperation is indeed well-timed. The observation of current situation revealed that in most cases, governmental agencies do not need the hard copy of the document. In essence, what required is the specific data (information) contained in those documents (such as official name of the legal entity, TIN, identification codes, or the size of the statutory fund (capital), etc.), which is issued (assigned) by other governmental bodies. Still, it is necessary to submit a copy (in some cases notarized), since in the absence of proper means of information exchange and interaction among the relevant state agencies, they cannot quickly verify the accuracy of the data provided by applicants. This explains the requirement of state agencies to submit the hard copies (or originals) of documents confirming such data.
Consider the example of obtaining a permit for placing an outdoor billboard advertisement. It is undeniable that advertising significantly contributes to sales of goods/services and hence stimulates the market. In order to ensure the protection of consumer rights, the legislation of Uzbekistan requires anyone willing to advertise their product to obtain a permission from local authorities. For this purpose, a set of documents and the request should be submitted to a commission of the local authorities (Khokimiat) - "Tashkent Reklama Servis". This package includes a copy of the certificate of state registration (guvohnoma), receipt for payment of the state fee, a sketch of the future ad (image) with text, a copy of the company certificate for goods (if subject to certification) and license for services (if subject to licensing), as well as other documents. The Commission decides on the issuance or refusal to issue a permit for placing an advertisement on a billboard within 10 days from the date of submission of the application.
It is important to understand in what way the presence of direct information exchange between government agencies would improve such a process. First of all, the number of documents provided in hard copy (paper form) would reduce. Thus, a new, enhanced application form, outlining all the necessary data about the applicant and the advertised product can provide sufficient information to the authorized body for an appropriate decision. The applying entrepreneur will need to present only one document in addition to the application – an image of future advertisement, while the rest of the documents can be retrieved by the Commission directly from other state bodies through the mechanisms of inter-agency cooperation. In the application, it would be enough to specify the legal name of the business entity, TIN and numbers of certificate or license, as well as the purpose of application (request). In this case, TIN will allow to find information regarding constituent documents, certain statistical codes as well as verify whether or not a business entity is registered by the state and has necessary certificates and licenses. This will simplify and also speed up the process of reviewing each request (application).
As can be seen from the example, the system of inter-agency cooperation through integrated databases, which is currently being implemented in Uzbekistan, will help optimize the performance of all government agencies issuing permits and licenses and will reduce monetary and time costs for entrepreneurs. The creation of such a system, however, requires a thorough study of the current procedures and creation of the list of documents and data required for the issuance of various permits as well the creation of information resources (databases) with their integration between multiple state agencies. A joint project of the UNDP and the Chamber of Commerce of Uzbekistan "Business Forum of Uzbekistan phase-3" (BFU-3) provides continuous support in this direction. Thus, on February 21, 2015, the project organized a workshop at the State Economic University of Uzbekistan, which was attended by over 60 representatives from various ministries, responsible for issuing permits and licenses. As a result of practical work in teams, based on resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers No. 377, the participants compiled comprehensive record of documents required for the issuance of licenses and permits. The developed lists of documents were divided into those which should be submitted directly by the applicant and those which can be obtained by the governmental agency independently, directly from other state bodies. In addition, on February 12, 2015 the joint project organized the meeting with representatives from several ministries to discuss the issues with implementation of inter-agency cooperation. The meeting focused on using a single technological approach for creating a database of businesses and individuals in order to improve the provision of public services to entrepreneurs.
The activities carried out by the joined project have supported the establishment Unified Register of public services, blanks and forms for the population and entrepreneurs as well as positively contributed to active improvement and simplification of procedures for the issuance of permits and licenses in Uzbekistan.
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