Simplifier le millefeuille des aides aux PME

Avec le 11ème salon "Planète PME",  c'est l'occasion de faire un tour d'horizon des dispositifs destinés à faciliter la croissance des PME. Leur abondance brouille souvent leur compréhension et leur utilisation. [...] Un récent rapport d'Ernst and Young a analysé la complexité des dispositifs, et sondé les bénéficiaires. Plus de 70 % des personnes interrogées y exprimaient une réelle difficulté à les identifier et à accéder aux aides publiques, avec en ligne de mire leur nombre trop important (32 %), la complexité des dispositifs (25 %) et la multiplicité des sources d'information (21 %). La CGPME avait déjà signalé cette faiblesse en 2012 dans son étude sur l'évolution des PME depuis dix ans. 74 % des dirigeants se déclaraient favorables à la création d'un guichet unique pour clarifier l'accès aux aides. Ce jugement négatif se conjugue avec une appréciation très critique de la majorité des structures publiques de soutien aux entreprises, perçues comme mal coordonnées et parfois concurrentes.Voir aussi commentaire sur Pro.Orange, un portail d'informations professionnelles.

One-stop-shop and business package (Spain)

On 24 May, the Spanish vice president of the government (vice-PM) announced a comprehensive package of measures to help boost business activity, including company law reforms, funding, tax breaks, export facilities and cutting red tape.
To make it easier de start a business, the vice president announced the centralisation of all the paperwork to reduce the time it takes to start a business to 24-48 hours. A project called Launch your business in 3 steps purports to tap the synergy between administrations, new technologies and new rules concerning affidavits in lieu of permits. A one-stop-shop will enable entrepreneurs to make the three basic declarations simultaneously on a single web platform developed together by central administration, the autonomous communities and local government, represented by the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces.

New permit policy in Jakarta

The Jakarta Post dated 15 May reports on a commitment by the governor of Jakarta to establish a special body to handle all investment permit-related processes under one roof, following complaints about the red-tape surrounding the setting up of a business. The Doing Business ranking of Indonesia is poor (128th) and particularly weak on "Starting a Business" (166th), a fact that the article does not mention, though it quotes other DB figures. Though welcome, this one-stop-shop only concerns one of the cities likely to attract foreign investment, but it will contribute to regulatory reform measures suggested by the October 2012 OECD review.

One-stop-shop for sporting events (France)

Who would have thought that it would be so complex to organise a Sunday cross country race or a childrens' basket ball competition? A good example of simplification experimenting is provided by a French département deciding to tackle what is a national issue and set up a "web-platform" for a single access to the various administrative procedures set up by different agencies, thereby also reducing the official response time to organisers' requests. Both specific sporting requireements and general rules such as those applying to events in public spaces are catered for, in this region where one quarter of the population are registered in one or several sporting clubs. This type of solution now apparently needs to be developped at the national level. For more, see Acteurs Publics.

Czech POINT "All in one place"

The Czech ministry of the interior has recently published a short report on the success of its initiative to help citizens in their relations with the administration: Czech POINT is a network of assisted public administration centres where each citizen can view and update, from a single access point, their personal information as stored in official registers as well as file applications.
Czech POINT (a kind of one-stop-shop) stands for "Czech Filling and Verification Information National Terminal. "

“Main objective of the project is the motto All in one place!. In the future, citizens will have access to Public Administration services not only at the Czech POINTs, but also via the Internet. Czech POINT is the most comfortable way of communicating with the authorities and institutions from a single place. The system is well-designed and I hope that it becomes quickly and spontaneously used by citizens and subsequently also requested,” said Minister of the Interior Ivan Langer.

Cutting red tape in Colombia

Having just spent one week in Bogota as a guest of the Colombian government (Planning Department), your blogger is in a position to complete and update the previous post on regulatory reform in Colombia.
The most important initiative is the decreto-ley anti-tramites,a red tape cutting and legal simplification exercise based on a delegation from Parliament to the president (Mr Santos) to take all steps required to repeal "burdensome or unnecessary" procedures during a six-month period ending in January 2012. A more complete description of its content is available on the Legislative Observer site, with most significant measures described on Urna de Cristal. This "'omnibus" streamlined many procedures, gave legal status to certain electronic records (like company accounts) and modernised many procedures, like replacing fingerprint ID by official documentation.
A public consultation on further steps is also under way where citizens are invited to "denounce" a time consuming or uselfess administrative procedure, under the banner of "Anti-Red-Tape Crusade". The site reports that 70,000 citizens have already contributed. Most popular demands: the deletion of certification of documents, especially the three-monhly declaration of existence (to prove you are not dead) or the authentication by notary of each sheet of company accounts.
Another channel, more specifically designed for business, is the Competitive Regulation program, which comprises an online questionnaire but also a schedule of regional roundtables by sector, set up by the ministry of industry, trade and tourism in partnership with private actors.
For the same stakeholders, the Confederation of Chambers of Commerce has set up a network of well endowed one-stop-shops for registering a new business or formalising an existing one, with offices throughout the country where new entrepreneurs can receive legal help and carry out all the related procedures.
Finally, under development, a single online database of all administrative procedures (SUIT) already helps citizens, business and public officials (each has a separate access module) find relevant legislation. The site contains the official forms as well as information on completing the requirements to secure an ID document, a passport, a driving licence, etc.

Philippines local government addresses red tape

According to a press agency despatch, Philippines local government of Bulacan is setting out to attract trade ventures in the agro-industrial province by closely enacting provisions of a national Anti-Red Tape Act in all provincial government offices. Governor Alvarado said he was seeking more efficiency in the issuance of permits from the local government units and national agencies. A one stop shop is already processing permits, but national agencies are not always sufficiently represented at the local level for efficient management of permit schemes.  In parallel, an effort is pursued to extend opening hours and offer faster response to businesses.

EESC advises on internal market

The opinions of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) are always a source of interesting information and comment as they frequently address BR issues (see this blog's EESC category).

Recently, the EESC has issued two opinions which aim to reduce the number of cross border difficulties experienced by European citizens and businesses. In the opinions, the EESC promotes the importance of a transparent, yet smoothly functioning system to instil confidence in citizens and businesses when dealing with cross border matters.

• Improving the single market for services: Services are the main driver of the EU economy and according to the Commission this sector accounts for around 70% of EU GDP. In recent years, there has been a marked shift to knowledge based industries. The opinion agrees that greater integration and a better functioning of service markets should enhance EU competitiveness. The EESC is positive about the “points of single contact” system, which facilitates easier access to country specific information in each Member State, but raises concerns about drawing conclusions from the screening too soon, and withouth taking account of the new treaty.
• Cross border tax problems: the opinion assesses the Commission’s plans to tackle the cross border tax problems that citizens and businesses face. The EESC recommends the establishment of one-stop shop services, whereby citizens can obtain information, pay taxes and receive the necessary documentation to be used across the whole EU. It also calls for a simplification of the administrative procedures applied to cross-border situations, to be undertaken on a bi-lateral and multi-lateral basis across Member States and the establishment of an independent Cross-Border Taxation Observatory with specific resources and functions clearly entrusted to it.

Egypt confirms regulatory reform policy commitment

On 5 June, Egyptian Regulatory Reform and Development Activity ERRADA announced a conference on managing the stock of legislation, in collaboration with SIGMA, to take place on 8 June in Cairo with international experts. ERRADA, a government initiative, has justs re-vamped their website, which is very informative on what is happening for reform in Egypt. ERRADA was launched in 2008 to build a regulatory management system for business related regulations. See Wikipedia page for a brief history of the agency. ERRADA developed the necessary institutions, tools and processes to enable it to inventory and review existing business related regulations. It also aims to provide accessibility to these regulations to the public and enhance decision making in Egypt through introduction of evidence-based tools (through RIA) into the policy making cycle. The ERRADA site contains the latest government statements on regulatory reform, among which we can notice the strong action in favour of simplifying legislation.

International partners supporting RR in Egypt  include: