Monday, 4 October 2010
Simplified licensing process
The news conference held today at the government’s press center was entitled “Licensing process reform and online licensing” and featured Chief of Government Staff David Sargsyan and Minister of Finance Tigran Davtyan as keynote speakers.
The Minister of Finance told the press conference that the government has been taking serious steps recently to simplify procedures, remove administrative barriers and minimize bureaucracy in general.
Let us remind you that at the cabinet sitting of September 24, 2010, the government endorsed a package of amendments to the law on licensing, the customs code and 14 other legal acts. The proposed bill provides that some 84 complex and 12 flat licensing procedures will be applicable upon its effectiveness instead of the currently used 157 complex and 12 simple procedures.
A number of activities were integrated or struck off the list of licensing. Tigran Sargsyan gave the following comments on the matter: “The simple procedures are applicable to those activities calling for information-based licensing, while the complex ones imply the use of specific standards and benchmarks for applicants representing both legal and natural persons.” According to the Minister of Finance, this process will bear a regular character.
The Head of Government Staff spoke on the new service available at www.e-gov.am/licenses webpage allowing the citizens to get licenses via both the simple and complex procedures. According to David Sargsyan, at this point only two areas of activity may be licensed online: “The first one is Ministry of Finance-delivered simple-procedure-licensing, and the second one is the Ministry of Transport and Communication-delivered licensing. Online licensing will be available within the next six months for other activities as well, except from the transport of nuclear fuel, for example.”
According to the head of government staff, the mentioned spheres are of topical interest as simple-procedure licensing has wider circulation as it relates to small businesses.
See the audio material
