CLIPPING PITCHING. 1. Food safety regulation conformity: Why do enterprises object? Media: Lao Dong Online Date: Jun 30, 2017

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1 Decree No.38

2 CLIPPING PITCHING 1. Food safety regulation conformity: Why do enterprises object? Media: Lao Dong Online Date: Jun 30, Food safety regulation conformity: Why do enterprises object? Media: Lao Dong Date: Jun 30, One kind of cake with 12 ingredients needs 13 licenses Media: Tuoi Tre Online Date: Jun 30, Amendment to Decree 38/2012/NC-CP: Simplify procedure, increase enterprises competitiveness Media: Cong Thuong Online Date: Jun 30, Dr. Nguyen Dinh Cung: one thing instructed by the government, PM, Deputy PM and still not solve yet, how to understand sense of administrative discipline Media: CafeF Online Date: Jul 1, Food safety inspection: One door but too many keys Media: Ngay Nay Online Date: Jul 1, It takes months to acquire certificate of self-responsibility Media: Chinh Phu Online Date: Jul 1, Controversy over inadequacies of draft decree on food safety Media: Vietnam Plus Online Date: Jul 1, Inadequacies still exist in food safety regulations Media: VTV1 Date: Jul 3, 2017

3 EARNED MEDIA SUPPORTED 1. Press review Media: VTV1 Date: Jun Enterprises have raised voice about procedures of food safety certification for many times, in many years at many places Media: BizLive Online Date: Jun Enterprises complain that MoH causes unnecessary costs with regulations on food safety Media: Phu Nu TPHCM Online Date: Jun 30, Enterprises oppose to procedures of food safety publication Media: Phap Luat TPHCM Online Date: Jun 30, Many troubles when implementing Decree No. 38/2012/ND-CP Media: Dang Cong San Online Date: Jun 30, Opinions about Amendment decree on food safety Media: Dai Bieu Nhan Dan Online Date: Jun 30, Does Decree 38 increase costs and impose more burden on enterprises? Media: Hai Quan Online Date: Jun 30, Does Decree 38 increase costs and impose more burden on enterprises? Media: Hoi Nha Bao Viet Nam Online Date: Jun 30, Does Decree 38 increase costs and impose more burden on enterprises? Media: Tin Hot Online Date: Jun 30, Un-tie enterprises by removing regulations? Media: Truyen Hinh Quoc Hoi TV Date: Jun 30, Suggest removing regulations of publication of food safety regulation conformity Media: To Quoc Online Date: Jun 30, Managing food safety with decree violating the law Media: VNMedia Online Date: Jul 1, % of business conditions need to be removed Media: Thanh Nien Online Date: Jul 1, 2017

4 14. It takes months to acquire certificate of self-responsibility Media: Dien Dan Canh Tranh Quoc Gia Online Date: Jul 1, One kind of cake with 12 ingredients needs 13 licenses Media: Sai Gon Dau Tu Tai Chinh Online Date: Jul 1, Unclear regulations must be removed Media: Dai Bieu Nhan Dan Online Date: Jul 2, Food safety management is still done on papers only Media: Infonet Online Date: Jul 2, Traders who make profit from chemical-treated foods are the cause of food poisoning Media: BizLive Online Date: Jul 2, Food safety management should be changed from pre-inspection to post-inspection Media: Phap Luat & Xa Hoi Online Date: Jul 1, Food safety management is still done on papers only Media: 24h Online Date: Jul 2, Seafood enterprises are tired of sub-licenses Media: Tin Nhanh Chung Khoan Online Date: Jul 3, Traders treats foods with chemical, enterprises and customers are desperate for help Media: Song Moi Online Date: Jul 2, Many inadequacies of Decree No. 38 are not modified yet Media: PT-TH Soc Trang Online Date: Jul 3, Enterprises want self-declaration of food standards, governing agencies deny Media: Dan Tri Online Date: Jul 3, Food safety: enterprises wants right of self-declaration Media: Dat Viet Online Date: Jul 3, Food safety: expectations about amendment decree Media: So Huu Tri Tue Online Date: Jul 3, VASEP suggests removing regulations that cause problems to business activities Media: Dau Thau Online Date: Jul 3, 2017

5 UNSUPPORTED 1. Fierce controversy over the suggestion of enterprises conformity self-declaration Media: An Ninh Thu Do Online Date: Jun 30, Un-tie enterprises by removing regulations? Media: VTC Online Date: Jul 1, Allow enterprise to self-declare food conformity: controversy Media: Kinh Te & Du Bao Online Date: Jul 1, Food standard self-declaration: should or shouldn t? Media: Giao Duc TPHCM Online Date: Jul 1, 2017

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7 Headline Media : Food safety regulation conformity: Why do enterprises object? : Lao Dong Online Date : June 30, 2017 Tone : Neutral Link : Key message: On June 27, 2017, VASEP (Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers) sent an official document to Deputy PM Vu Duc Dam, proposing comments about some contents of Draft Decree revising Decree 38/2012 / ND-CP on Food Safety, stating Decree 38 imposes enterprises with burdens of time, finance and mind, and affects competitiveness of enterprises as well as the country in the current context of international integration. Speaking with Lao Dong Newspaper, Mr. Nguyen Hoai Nam, Deputy General Secretary of VASEP, said: some regulations of Decree 38 is out of date and not in line with international practice. Specifically, among 160 markets that Vietnamese seafood products are exported to, none requires procedures of announcement of conformity and food safety regulations as regulated at Decree 38. In these countries, state management practices includes 2 main activities: checking manufacturing conditions and controlling risks according to specific product category, region, area and time in accordance with the law, which mainly focuses on monitoring the process. The final product quality assurance is enterprises self-quality controlling activity. State governing agencies only do examination and control risks, not checking every type of products on every aspects without considering risk control like Vietnam, where food safety regulation conformity declaration is required. The periodic product testing regulated at Decree 38 causes enterprises high costs but it cannot replace post-inspection and not totally objective. More importantly, this requirement violates the Law on Standards and Technical Regulations, contradicts with international practices. No country requires enterprises to periodically send samples for testing on their own, instead, the countries ask them to build a quality assurance system and encourage them to apply modern quality assurance systems. Many illogical issues in Decree 38 also mentioned in the document from VASEP, including some regulations that adding legs to a snake (or unnecessary) that are not regulated in the Law on Food Safety. For example certification of food safety conformity, acceptance of regulation conformity declaration are just another form of sub-license. These sub-licenses have made enterprises lose many business opportunities for they took so much time, even 3-4 months, to acquire, said Mr. Nguyen Hoai Nam. Many other organizations and associations also proposed opinions on the inconvenience and unreasonable issues caused by Decree 38. EuroCham also suggests modifying some unnecessary regulations that cause high costs for enterprises and are not included in Law on Food Safety. Chairman of AmCham shares the same opinion on this issue when sending a document to PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc on June 21, suggest modifying some regulations on the procedures of issuing regulation conformity acceptance and food safety regulation conformity certification. Does it affects food safety? With countries that provide Health Certificate why exporting to Vietnam, enterprises suggest the government consider not requiring publication of regulation conformity with processed products. Instead, the importer is responsible for announcing related authorities and applying related importing documents, printing secondary label for product identification and is responsible for content of that label. This is how EU countries govern imported foods from Vietnam.

8 Exporting enterprises in Vietnam also want to meet international standards to export products. Vietnam should not create any difference to other countries in food safety management because some regulations in Decree 38 conflict with international practices. Currently, CODEX is the regulation of food safety that is applied in many countries. Vietnam should follow CODEX standards instead of creating Vietnam standards, which is both money and time-consuming, sometimes it even becomes technical obstacle to the development of enterprises. Mr. Nguyen Hoai Nam also said that most countries do post-inspection and monitor manufacturing process to manage food safety. Moreover, statistics show that daily meals account for 99% of food poisoning risk, packaged foods only account for 1%. That s why we shouldn t be concerned that removing these regulations will increase the risk of poor food safety, said him. Back to top

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11 Headline Media : Food safety regulation conformity: Why do enterprises object? : Lao Dong Date : Jun 30, 2017 Tone : Neutral Page : ¼ Page : 4 Key message: On June 27, 2017, VASEP (Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers) sent an official document to Deputy PM Vu Duc Dam, proposing comments about some contents of Draft Decree revising Decree 38/2012 / ND-CP on Food Safety, stating Decree 38 imposes enterprises with burdens of time, finance and mind, and affects competitiveness of enterprises as well as the country in the current context of international integration. Speaking with Lao Dong Newspaper, Mr. Nguyen Hoai Nam, Deputy General Secretary of VASEP, said: some regulations of Decree 38 is out of date and not in line with international practice. Specifically, among 160 markets that Vietnamese seafood products are exported to, none requires procedures of announcement of conformity and food safety regulations as regulated at Decree 38. In these countries, state management practices includes 2 main activities: checking manufacturing conditions and controlling risks according to specific product category, region, area and time in accordance with the law, which mainly focuses on monitoring the process. The final product quality assurance is enterprises self-quality controlling activity. State governing agencies only do examination and control risks, not checking every type of products on every aspects without considering risk control like Vietnam, where food safety regulation conformity declaration is required. The periodic product testing regulated at Decree 38 causes enterprises high costs but it cannot replace post-inspection and not totally objective. More importantly, this requirement violates the Law on Standards and Technical Regulations, contradicts with international practices. No country requires enterprises to periodically send samples for testing on their own, instead, the countries ask them to build a quality assurance system and encourage them to apply modern quality assurance systems. Many illogical issues in Decree 38 also mentioned in the document from VASEP, including some regulations that adding legs to a snake (or unnecessary) that are not regulated in the Law on Food Safety. For example certification of food safety conformity, acceptance of regulation conformity declaration are just another form of sub-license. These sub-licenses have made enterprises lose many business opportunities for they took so much time, even 3-4 months, to acquire, said Mr. Nguyen Hoai Nam. Many other organizations and associations also proposed opinions on the inconvenience and unreasonable issues caused by Decree 38. EuroCham also suggests modifying some unnecessary regulations that cause high costs for enterprises and are not included in Law on Food Safety. Chairman of AmCham shares the same opinion on this issue when sending a document to PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc on June 21, suggest modifying some regulations on the procedures of issuing regulation conformity acceptance and food safety regulation conformity certification. Does it affects food safety? With countries that provide Health Certificate why exporting to Vietnam, enterprises suggest the government consider not requiring publication of regulation conformity with processed products. Instead, the importer is responsible for announcing related authorities and applying related importing documents, printing secondary label for product identification and is responsible for content of that label. This is how EU countries govern imported foods from Vietnam.

12 Exporting enterprises in Vietnam also want to meet international standards to export products. Vietnam should not create any difference to other countries in food safety management because some regulations in Decree 38 conflict with international practices. Currently, CODEX is the regulation of food safety that is applied in many countries. Vietnam should follow CODEX standards instead of creating Vietnam standards, which is both money and time-consuming, sometimes it even becomes technical obstacle to the development of enterprises. Mr. Nguyen Hoai Nam also said that most countries do post-inspection and monitor manufacturing process to manage food safety. Moreover, statistics show that daily meals account for 99% of food poisoning risk, packaged foods only account for 1%. That s why we shouldn t be concerned that removing these regulations will increase the risk of poor food safety, said him. Back to top

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14 Headline Media : One kind of cake with 12 ingredients needs 13 licenses : Tuoi Tre Online Date : June 30, 2017 Tone : Neutral Link : giay-phep/ html Key message: Decree 38 guiding to implement Law on Food Safety with procedures of publication of food safety conformity is considered illegal and is an obstacle of business activities. At the meeting between representatives of associations such as tea, cocoa, seafood, dairy, VCCI and representatives of Agency of Food Safety (Ministry of Health) and related agencies this afternoon (Jun 30), representatives of associations agreed on proposing to remove this regulation. 1 package of cake must acquire 13 licenses Mr. Nguyen Dinh Cung, President of CIEM, said that procedures of publication of food safety conformity takes 1,5 months as regulated in Decree 38, however, the actual time is much longer, sometimes 3-6 months. The reasons, according to Mr. Cung, are too many procedures. The content of documents required is not specific, so it is arbitrary whether regulatory authorities consider it conforming or not. Once the enterprise is asked to review, the process starts from zero, which is time consuming and money consuming to the enterprise. Meanwhile, Mr. Dau Anh Tuan, Head of Legal Department of VCCI, said that the certification of publication of food safety conformity required in Decree 38 is not mentioned in Law on Food Safety and Law on Standards and Technical Regulations. An enterprise complained with us that they produced a type of cake with 12 ingredients and had to acquire 12 licenses, not to mention publication of regulation conformity, which added up to 13 licenses. Only a minor change in ingredients and they must repeat the process, which is moneyconsuming for enterprises, said Mr. Tuan. He also said management requirements are necessary, however, they have to be changed if they are against the law. He also thinks it s the mind of regulatory authorities that need to be changed. The policy implement agency is the one that compose it, therefore they compose a policy that benefits them and is easy for them, said him. Many people manage only 1% According to statistics of experts at the meeting, regulation on publication of food safety regulation conformity is against the law and the one responsible for it is Agency of Food Safety, Ministry of Health. Representative of AmCham complained that this regulation is not practical and not effective in food safety management. 99% cases of food poison happened at companies cafeterias, restaurants, street foods, etc. Only 1% of them are relating to packaged foods. However, regulatory agencies focus on managing this 1% with a lot of human, who does management on documents only. Representative of EuroCham complained that requirement of publication of food safety regulation conformity conflicted with 2 current laws and had no practical value, therefore proposed to remove it. Enterprises are responsible for their publication, the Agency only reviews documents. However, Agency of Food Safety changes self-publication to licensing but takes no responsibility for the product!

15 Responding to the business community, representative of Agency of Food Safety says that currently it accepts documents of publication of food safety regulation conformity online, which takes enterprises little time. Enterprises don t agree with this, however, explaining that each time they apply documents, experts of the Agency requires them to modify it according to their feelings, not to any principle. South East Asian countries such as Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia already apply management by input material and focus on post-inspection, unlike Vietnam, representative of an enterprises says. Replying to Tuoi Tre Newspapers, representative of Agency of Food Safety recently said that with the current management level of Vietnam, we should do both pre-inspection and post-inspection at the same time. He also said the Agency s practices is not against the law. According to experts, however, at a discussion between Deputy PM Vu Duc Dam, Ministry of Health (MoH) and enterprises, MoH committed to quickly revise their certification requirement of publication of food safety regulation conformity in a way that is more beneficial to enterprises. So far, MoH has not yet revised and we find that the Ministry violates administrative discipline for not fulfilling that commitment, an enterprise s representative asked MoH. Back to top

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18 Headline : Amendment to Decree 38/2012/NC-CP: Simplify procedure, increase enterprises competitiveness Media : Cong Thuong Online Date : June 30, 2017 Tone : Neutral : Link nghiep.html Key message: This afternoon (June 30), CIEM, VCCI, VASEP, VICOFA and VITAS co-organized a seminar themed Food safety from regulations to management practices; issues and modifying expectation at amendment decree of Decree 38/2012/ND-CP. Costly and time-consuming Mr. Nguyen Hoai Nam, Deputy Secretary of VASEP, said the biggest inadequacies of Decree 38 are procedures of conformity declaration and publication of food safety conformity. According to him, conformity declaration should be done by organizations or individuals on their own, and they are fully responsible for that declaration. However, Decree 38 requires organization and individuals to register with competent agency to be granted or re-granted Certificate of conformity to technical regulations, which is a form of granting sub-license. Similarly, procedure of registering for certificate of conformity to food safety regulations takes much more time than regulated. Therefore, according to associations, the registration for certificate granting is just like another sub-license, which is against the current spirit of simplifying regulations and administrative procedure. Mr. Dau Anh Tuan, head of legal department of VCCI, takes an example showing that with decree 38, enterprises must acquire dozens of certificates for the ingredients and the final product, which is unnecessary and troublesome to enterprises. Representative of AmCham said some enterprises spent 4 months and 2 days to register for certificate of conformity instead of 7 working days as regulated in Law on Standards and Technical Regulations. Especially, decree 38 said enterprises are fully responsible for the declaration instead of Agency of Food Safety. Then what is the point of this procedure of Agency of Food Safety, asked this representative. Solution VASEP said it is necessary to modify regulations that are troublesome to enterprises Specifically, the testing and declaring conformity procedure should be shortened to enterprises sending samples for laboratory testing at assigned laboratories. Information of conformity will be announced on the laboratory s website. Regulatory agency instead of assessing papers, will focus on getting and testing products from the actual market. VASEP also suggests removing regulation of publication of food safety regulation conformity, which is not defined in Law on Food Safety. Mr. Pham Thanh Binh, expert of USAID GIG, suggests removing clause 2 of Articles 3; clauses 4 & 5 of Article 4; removing Article 6; removing the phrase or certificate of conformity to food safety regulations at Articles 7, 8 and term h of clause 2 of Article 20. Representative of Agency of Food Safety, in response to opinions of associations, said that food safety management has direct impact on human health, therefore they can t remove these procedures. Back to top

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20 Headline : Dr. Nguyen Dinh Cung: one thing instructed by the government, PM, Deputy PM and still not solve yet, how to understand sense of administrative discipline? Media : CafeF Online Date : Jul 1, 2017 Tone : Neutral Link : Key message: That is the opinion of Dr. Nguyen Dinh Cung, President of CIEM, at a seminar about Food Safety organized in the afternoon of June 30 in Hanoi in front of enterprises negative feedbacks about Decree 38. For many years, enterprises and household businesses have given negative feedbacks about procedures of certifying publication of food safety conformity, for there are too much unclear content, especially necessary conditions to be certified as conformed. These regulations are costly, time-consuming and burdensome to enterprises, adding cost to final products and reducing enterprises competitiveness, affecting the whole economy. Despite instructions to modify the decree from Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam and Minister of Health, the above issues are still not solved yet. A minor change in Decree 38 is still difficult to process, how can we do more complicated things, he added. Back to top

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23 Headline Media : Food safety inspection: One door but too many... keys : Ngay Nay Online Date : Jul 1, 2017 Tone : Neutral Link html Key message: : The business community has given opinions for many times about the inadequacies of Decree 38. At the seminar about food safety regulation and expectations of modifying the draft amendment decree of Decree 38 co-organized by CIEM, VCCI and VASEP on June 30, this issue is discussed again. Mr. Dau Anh Tuan, head of legal department of VCCI, analyzed: certificate requirement of publication of food safety regulation conformity in Decree 38 is not in line with Law on Food Safety; documents for receipt of declaration of conformity to technical regulations are different to regulations of Law on Standards and Technical Regulations; some regulations are too general. Mr. Nguyen Hoai Nam from VASEP said: the procedure of food safety conformity publication is change to procedure of registration, documents to submit, a 4-step process at Agency of Food Safety, sometimes it takes much more time than usual, affecting production and business activities. Many products even need certificates from 2 Ministries. There is no difference between G7 countries and countries with food safety issues, and no difference between globally recognized products with normal ones, or between products of different origins. We call it lining out. A latest survey done by VCCI proves that Decree 38 obviously creates difficulties for enterprise and does not improve management effectiveness. Representatives suggest removing this regulation and replacing it with other forms in compliance with the law. Mr. Dau Anh Tuan also said the amendment decree must be more transparent and clearer. According to Mr. Nguyen Dinh Cung, opinions of associations and enterprises at the seminar will put pressure on the 3 relating Ministries: Ministry of Health, Ministry of Industry and Trade, and Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. He expects these ministries to modify articles and clauses that causes troubles to enterprises, so that they can reduce cost and time, showing that their voices are listened by the government. Without any changes, the enterprises will lose their trust and we will lose many other things. I hope the seminar will push renovation and changes in management, contributing to execute the Prime Minister s message of building a constructive government that serves people and works for the benefit of enterprises and accompany with them, he confirmed. Back to top

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26 Headline Media : It takes months to acquire certificate of self-responsibility : Chinh Phu Online Date : Jul 1, 2017 Tone : Neutral Link : Key message: Enterprises must spend months to follow procedure to acquire a certificate, which says that the enterprise, not the agency issuing certificate, is responsible for what declared in that certificate. On June 30, CIEM, VCCI, VASEP, VICOFA and VITAS co-organized a seminar themed Food safety from regulations to management practices; issues and modifying expectation at amendment decree of Decree 38/2012/ND-CP. A few days ago, VASEP propose suggestion to government agencies about the modification of Decree 38, in which the biggest issue is procedure of certifying publication of food safety regulation conformity. Dr. Nguyen Dinh Cung from CIEM said that procedure has been said to be not in line with Law on Food Safety and Law on Standards and Technical Regulations. There are too many unclear contents, especially necessary conditions to be certified as conformed. These regulations are costly, time-consuming and burdensome to enterprises, adding cost to final products and reducing enterprises competitiveness, affecting the whole economy, according to Dr. Cung. Mr. Dau Anh Tuan from VCCI suggests that the agency composing policy should be different from the one issuing certificate. Lawyer Tran Ngoc Han, representative of AmCham confirms this regulation is not an effective and appropriate method to ensure food safety for the sake of consumers. Mr. Tran Van Chau, representative of Agency of Food Safety commits to keep record of these opinions, but says the modification of regulations must follow the law and needs careful consideration. Back to top

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29 Headline Media : Controversy over inadequacies of draft decree on food safety : Vietnam Plus Online Date : Jul 1, 2017 Tone : Neutral Link : Key message: On June 30, in Hanoi, CIEM, VCCI, VASEP co-organized a seminar about food safety regulation and expectations of modifying the draft amendment decree of Decree 38. Many representatives at the seminar share the same opinion that some regulations of Decree 38 are unnecessarily costly, time-consuming and burdensome to enterprises. Specifically, the inspection procedures are too complicated and not effective in ensure food safety, because the Agency of Food Safety only assesses submitted papers without visiting factories or testing the actual products, which is a waste of money and effort of both the state and enterprises. Some of the procedures are not even clear and can be interpreted in many ways, depending on the officials in charge. Moreover, the certification requirement of publication of food safety regulation conformity is not in line with Law on Food Safety and conflicts with Law on Standards and Technical Regulations. Representatives suggest removing this regulation and replace it with another form in compliance with current law. However, Mr. Tran Van Chau, head of inspection department, Agency of Food Safety, MoH, confirmed: The certification of food safety conformity is essential. Because everything related to human health must be strictly in line with government s standards. Back to top

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31 Headline Media : Inadequacies still exist in food safety regulations : VTV1 Cuoc Song Thuong Ngay Date : Jul 3, 2017 Time : 17:45 Link 20:13) Key message: : (news starts at Representatives of foods producing companies today had a seminar to discuss about the unsolved inadequacies in the draft amendment decree of Decree 38, which regulates details about the implementation of Law on Food Safety. Some of these regulations have been causing unreasonable costs to the production and imposing more burden on enterprises. If making a cake needs 12 ingredients, each of which takes 30 days to acquire certificate. Then it takes almost a year to acquire all the certificates. Dr. Nguyen Dinh Cung, President of CIEM, said: The biggest issues are administrative procedures of certificate of declaration of food safety regulation conformity and declaration of conformity to technical regulations, about which the business community has given opinion for many times in many years and these issues are still not solved yet. According to representative of AmCham, some of the regulations are just a form of granting sublicense, and it is against Law on Food Safety and Law on Standards and Technical Regulations and Resolution 19 by the Prime Minister. Representatives at the seminar find that these regulations are not effective in improving management effectiveness and suggest removing at replace them with other regulations that is more appropriate and in compliance with the law. Back to top

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35 Headline : Press review Media : VTV1 Finance & Business Date : Jun 30, 2017 Time : 7:10 Link : Back to top

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37 Headline : Enterprises have raised voice about procedures of food safety certification for many times, in many years at many places Media : BizLive Online Date : June 30, 2017 Tone : Neutral Link : Key message: Business community has made continuously efforts to complain about procedures of Food safety regulation conformity certification and the problems are still not solved, despite the fact that this regulation is not compliant with Law on Food Safety as well as Law on Standards and Technical Regulations. At the seminar Food safety from regulations to management practices; issues and modifying expectation at amendment decree of Decree 38/2012/ND-CP, representatives have mentioned 2 issues when implementing Decree 38: administrative procedures related to Certification of food safety regulation conformity and Certification of regulation conformity, which violates Law on Food Safety and Law on Standards and Technical Regulations, and are not compliant with international practices. Moreover, these procedures consume a lot of time and money of enterprises without any effectiveness. Not only enterprises but the government also issued many resolutions suggesting modifying and simplifying procedures regulated in Decree 38. Back to top

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39 Headline safety Media : Enterprises complain that MoH causes unnecessary costs with regulations on food : Phu Nu TPHCM Online Date : June 30, 2017 Tone : Neutral Link : Key message: Procedures of publication of food safety conformity regulated in Decree 38 is not effective in food management and is a waste of time and money. Regulations against the law? At the seminar themed Food safety from regulations to management practices; issues and modifying expectation at amendment decree of Decree 38/2012/ND-CP, Mr. Dau Anh Tuan, Head of Legal Department of VCCI, said he received a lot of proposals from enterprises producing packaged food relating to procedures of publication of food safety conformity. Specifically, a recent survey done by VCCI shows that only 38% of imported goods finish customs clearance within 48 hours following international practices, in which, customs procedure accounts for 28% of time, specialized procedures 78%. Especially, customs clearance for goods that needs food safety check sometimes takes 16 days. Is this the consequences of Decree 38, creating barriers for enterprises?, he asked. This decree has serious impact on the competitiveness of enterprises. Considering legal aspects, Mr. Dau Anh Tuan confirms that certification requirement of publication of food safety regulation conformity in Decree 38 is not in line with the law. Specifically, Law on Food Safety issued in 2010 (which has been applied so far) defines: Packaged foods and processed foods must register conformity publication with competent authorities before they are circulated on the market, does not define the methods of publication of food safety regulation conformity. Meanwhile, Law on Standards and Technical Regulations does not mention this method either. He adds, the foundation of Decree 38 is unclear, making officials implement it according to their feelings and causes trouble to enterprises. If 13 licenses are required to produce a chocolate bar The existence of too many administrative procedure is costly and burdensome to enterprises. For example, a chocolate product is produced from 12 ingredients. That means the enterprise must acquire publication of food safety regulation conformity for 12 ingredients and for the final product. That means 13 licenses. If there is a minor change without affecting product quality, the procedure starts again from zero, said Mr. Tuan. Lawyer Tran Ngoc Han, representative of Food and Beverage Committee of AmCharm, said many packaging enterprises of AmCharm spend months finishing documents of food safety publication, sometimes it takes more than 6 months. Moreover, many representatives of enterprises and associations said that regulations of publication of food safety conformity of MoH do not improve and ensure food safety, for the Agency of Food Safety does not physically check manufacturing factory but only reviews submitted documents (?!). And it also says that enterprises are totally responsible for food safety conformity. Law do exist but no one reviews

40 Representatives of Amcham and EuroCham confirm that product publication before circulation of Vietnam does not exist in European countries and the U.S. Instead, products are controlled with post-inspection, combining with checking producing conditions and process of factories. It doesn t exist in Asian countries such as Malaysia and Singapore, either. Meanwhile, Thailand checks producing process and input materials. Vietnamese products such as seafood, which has been exported to over 160 countries, has never been subjected to similar publication requirements in other countries. Deputy Minister of Health Truong Quoc Cuong confirmed that this proposal of VASEP is reasonable. However, the latest draft decree still holds this regulation, which confuse enterprises. At the meeting, associations suggest replacing regulation of food safety publication with one-door process, not controlling documents but focusing on post-inspection. Specifically, for food safety control, enterprises send sample product to assigned laboratories for inspection. Information of production quality assurance will be announced on website of the lab. Regulatory authorities focus on inspecting and checking products sold on the market. Back to top

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43 Headline Media : Enterprises oppose to procedures of food safety publication : Phap Luat TPHCM Online Date : June 30, 2017 Tone : Neutral Link Key message: : Managing the wrong objects in the wrong way, authorities have violated Law on Food Safety, said Dr. Nguyen Dinh Cung, President of CIEM, at a seminar about Food Safety organized in the afternoon of June 30 in Hanoi. For many years, enterprises and household businesses have given negative feedbacks about procedures of certifying publication of food safety conformity, for there are too much unclear content, especially necessary conditions to be certified as conformed. These regulations are costly, time-consuming and burdensome to enterprises, adding cost to final products and reducing enterprises competitiveness, affecting the whole economy, emphasized Dr. Cung. Mr. Pham Thanh Binh, former head of Post Clearance Audit Department, General Department of Vietnam Customs, said: The current number of documents waiting for consideration is nearly With this number, obviously the time of certifying will be extended, and enterprises will complain, for sure. We request to remove these regulations, as they are not effective and do not protect consumers. Mr. Dau Anh Tuan, Head of Legal Department of VCCI, said: Procedure of certifying Publication of Food Safety Conformity is not clear, the process takes too much time. The review and consideration is subjective and with many procedures. This shows that the authority is putting the financial burden on enterprises, and consumers will be the ones subject to all costs when product prices increase. Ms. Nguyen Hong Minh, former Deputy Minister of Fisheries, said: The current procedure is unreasonably time-consuming. The business community has raised opinions, the Government has issued resolutions requesting amendment. Resolution No. 19 requests this decree to be modified, Deputy PM and MoH required to review and revise, simplify procedure, and it is still not modified yet. Even in the draft amendment decree, it is still not reviewed, said Ms. Minh. However, Mr. Tran Van Chau, head of inspection department, Agency of Food Safety, MoH, confirmed: The certification of food safety conformity is essential. Because everything related to human health must be strictly in line with government s standards. According to that, enterprises must perform product publication, announce and assess the conformity of their own products. The next step is organization s reviews and assessment. After that, governing authority will accept document and process the next steps. Box: Publication of food safety regulation conformity regulated at Decree 38 is not defined in Law on Food Safety. However, it is widely applied, even more popularly than regulation of conformity publication, an official regulation of Law on Food Safety. Procedure of publication is said to be sophisticated, costly and time-consuming for enterprises. For that reason, experts suggest removing this regulation. Back to top

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46 Headline Media : Many troubles when implementing Decree No. 38/2012/ND-CP : Dang Cong San Online Date : June 30, 2017 Tone : Neutral Link : Key message: On June 30, in Hanoi, CIEM, VCCI, VASEP co-organized a seminar about food safety regulation and expectations of modifying the draft amendment decree of Decree 38. Many representatives at the seminar share the same opinion that some regulations of Decree 38 are unnecessarily costly, time-consuming and burdensome to enterprises. Specifically, the inspection procedures are too complicated and not effective in ensure food safety, because the Agency of Food Safety only assesses submitted papers without visiting factories or testing the actual products, which is a waste of money and effort of both the state and enterprises. Some of the procedures are not even clear and can be interpreted in many ways, depending on the officials in charge. Moreover, the certification requirement of publication of food safety regulation conformity is not in line with Law on Food Safety and conflicts with Law on Standards and Technical Regulations. Representatives suggest removing this regulation and replace it with another form in compliance with current law. Back to top

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49 Headline : Opinions about amendment decree on food safety Media : Dai Bieu Nhan Dan Online Date : June 30, 2017 Tone : Neutral Link : Key message: On June 30, at the seminar themed Food safety from regulations to management practices; issues and modifying expectation at amendment decree of Decree 38/2012/ND-CP, representatives discussed the impacts of Decree 38 on the business environment of Vietnam, raised the issues it caused to business and manufacturing activities, and proposed some suggestion to solve the problem of procedures of certifying conformity publication and certification of food safety regulation conformity. Back to top

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51 Headline Media : Does Decree 38 increase costs and impose more burden on enterprises? : Hai Quan Online Date : June 30, 2017 Tone : Neutral Link : Key message: This afternoon (June 230), CIEM, VCCI, VASEP, VICOFA and VITAS co-organized a seminar themed Food safety from regulations to management practices; issues and modifying expectation at amendment decree of Decree 38/2012/ND-CP. Costly and time-consuming Mr. Nguyen Hoai Nam, Deputy Secretary of VASEP, said the biggest inadequacies of Decree 38 are procedures of conformity declaration and publication of food safety conformity. According to him, conformity declaration should be done by organizations or individuals on their own, and they are fully responsible for that declaration. However, Decree 38 requires organization and individuals to register with competent agency to be granted or re-granted Certificate of conformity to technical regulations, which is a form of granting sub-license. Similarly, procedure of registering for certificate of conformity to food safety regulations takes much more time than regulated. Therefore, according to associations, the registration for certificate granting is just like another sub-license, which is against the current spirit of simplifying regulations and administrative procedure. Mr. Dau Anh Tuan, head of legal department of VCCI, takes an example showing that with decree 38, enterprises must acquire dozens of certificates for the ingredients and the final product, which is unnecessary and troublesome to enterprises. Representative of AmCham said some enterprises spent 4 months and 2 days to register for certificate of conformity instead of 7 working days as regulated in Law on Standards and Technical Regulations. Especially, decree 38 said enterprises are fully responsible for the declaration instead of Agency of Food Safety. Then what is the point of this procedure of Agency of Food Safety, asked this representative. VASEP said it is necessary to modify regulations that are troublesome to enterprises Specifically, the testing and declaring conformity procedure should be shortened to enterprises sending samples for laboratory testing at assigned laboratories. Information of conformity will be announced on the laboratory s website. Regulatory agency instead of assessing papers, will focus on getting and testing products from the actual market. VASEP also suggests removing regulation of publication of food safety regulation conformity, which is not defined in Law on Food Safety. Mr. Pham Thanh Binh, expert of USAID GIG, suggests removing clause 2 of Articles 3; clauses 4 & 5 of Article 4; removing Article 6; removing the phrase or certificate of conformity to food safety regulations at Articles 7, 8 and term h of clause 2 of Article 20. Representative of Agency of Food Safety, in response to opinions of associations, said that food safety management has direct impact on human health, therefore they can t remove these procedures. Back to top

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54 Headline Media : Does Decree 38 increase costs and impose more burden on enterprises? : Hoi Nha Bao Viet Nam Online Date : June 30, 2017 Tone : Neutral Link : Key message: This afternoon (June 230), CIEM, VCCI, VASEP, VICOFA and VITAS co-organized a seminar themed Food safety from regulations to management practices; issues and modifying expectation at amendment decree of Decree 38/2012/ND-CP. Costly and time-consuming Mr. Nguyen Hoai Nam, Deputy Secretary of VASEP, said the biggest inadequacies of Decree 38 are procedures of conformity declaration and publication of food safety conformity. According to him, conformity declaration should be done by organizations or individuals on their own, and they are fully responsible for that declaration. However, Decree 38 requires organization and individuals to register with competent agency to be granted or re-granted Certificate of conformity to technical regulations, which is a form of granting sub-license. Similarly, procedure of registering for certificate of conformity to food safety regulations takes much more time than regulated. Therefore, according to associations, the registration for certificate granting is just like another sub-license, which is against the current spirit of simplifying regulations and administrative procedure. Mr. Dau Anh Tuan, head of legal department of VCCI, takes an example showing that with decree 38, enterprises must acquire dozens of certificates for the ingredients and the final product, which is unnecessary and troublesome to enterprises. VASEP said it is necessary to modify regulations that are troublesome to enterprises Specifically, the testing and declaring conformity procedure should be shortened to enterprises sending samples for laboratory testing at assigned laboratories. Information of conformity will be announced on the laboratory s website. Regulatory agency instead of assessing papers, will focus on getting and testing products from the actual market. VASEP also suggests removing regulation of publication of food safety regulation conformity, which is not defined in Law on Food Safety. Mr. Pham Thanh Binh, expert of USAID GIG, suggests removing clause 2 of Articles 3; clauses 4 & 5 of Article 4; removing Article 6; removing the phrase or certificate of conformity to food safety regulations at Articles 7, 8 and term h of clause 2 of Article 20. Representative of Agency of Food Safety, in response to opinions of associations, said that food safety management has direct impact on human health, therefore they can t remove these procedures. Back to top

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56 Headline Media : Does Decree 38 increase costs and impose more burden on enterprises? : Tin Hot Online Date : June 30, 2017 Tone : Neutral Link : Key message: This afternoon (June 230), CIEM, VCCI, VASEP, VICOFA and VITAS co-organized a seminar themed Food safety from regulations to management practices; issues and modifying expectation at amendment decree of Decree 38/2012/ND-CP. Costly and time-consuming Mr. Nguyen Hoai Nam, Deputy Secretary of VASEP, said the biggest inadequacies of Decree 38 are procedures of conformity declaration and publication of food safety conformity. According to him, conformity declaration should be done by organizations or individuals on their own, and they are fully responsible for that declaration. However, Decree 38 requires organization and individuals to register with competent agency to be granted or re-granted Certificate of conformity to technical regulations, which is a form of granting sub-license. Similarly, procedure of registering for certificate of conformity to food safety regulations takes much more time than regulated. Therefore, according to associations, the registration for certificate granting is just like another sub-license, which is against the current spirit of simplifying regulations and administrative procedure. Mr. Dau Anh Tuan, head of legal department of VCCI, takes an example showing that with decree 38, enterprises must acquire dozens of certificates for the ingredients and the final product, which is unnecessary and troublesome to enterprises. Representative of AmCham said some enterprises spent 4 months and 2 days to register for certificate of conformity instead of 7 working days as regulated in Law on Standards and Technical Regulations. Especially, decree 38 said enterprises are fully responsible for the declaration instead of Agency of Food Safety. Then what is the point of this procedure of Agency of Food Safety, asked this representative. VASEP said it is necessary to modify regulations that are troublesome to enterprises Specifically, the testing and declaring conformity procedure should be shortened to enterprises sending samples for laboratory testing at assigned laboratories. Information of conformity will be announced on the laboratory s website. Regulatory agency instead of assessing papers, will focus on getting and testing products from the actual market. VASEP also suggests removing regulation of publication of food safety regulation conformity, which is not defined in Law on Food Safety. Mr. Pham Thanh Binh, expert of USAID GIG, suggests removing clause 2 of Articles 3; clauses 4 & 5 of Article 4; removing Article 6; removing the phrase or certificate of conformity to food safety regulations at Articles 7, 8 and term h of clause 2 of Article 20. Representative of Agency of Food Safety, in response to opinions of associations, said that food safety management has direct impact on human health, therefore they can t remove these procedures. Back to top

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58 Headline Media : Many troubles when implementing Decree No. 38 on food safety : Truyen Hinh Quoc Hoi TV Date : June 30, 2017 Tone : Neutral Link Key message: : On June 30, in Hanoi, CIEM, VCCI, VASEP co-organized a seminar about food safety regulation and expectations of modifying the draft amendment decree of Decree 38. Many representatives at the seminar share the same opinion that some regulations of Decree 38 are unnecessarily costly, time-consuming and burdensome to enterprises. Specifically, the inspection procedures are too complicated and not effective in ensure food safety, because the Agency of Food Safety only assesses submitted papers without visiting factories or testing the actual products, which is a waste of money and effort of both the state and enterprises. Some of the procedures are not even clear and can be interpreted in many ways, depending on the officials in charge. Moreover, the certification requirement of publication of food safety regulation conformity is not in line with Law on Food Safety and conflicts with Law on Standards and Technical Regulations. Representatives suggest removing this regulation and replace it with another form in compliance with current law. Back to top

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60 Headline Media : Suggest removing regulations of publication of food safety regulation conformity : To Quoc Online Date : June 30, 2017 Tone : Neutral Link : Key message: Business community has made continuously efforts to complain about procedures of Food safety regulation conformity certification and the problems are still not solved, despite the fact that this regulation is not compliant with Law on Food Safety as well as Law on Standards and Technical Regulations. At the seminar Food safety from regulations to management practices; issues and modifying expectation at amendment decree of Decree 38/2012/ND-CP, representatives have mentioned 2 issues when implementing Decree 38: administrative procedures related to Certification of food safety regulation conformity and Certification of regulation conformity, which violates Law on Food Safety and Law on Standards and Technical Regulations, and are not compliant with international practices. Moreover, these procedures consume a lot of time and money of enterprises without any effectiveness. Not only enterprises but the government also issued many resolutions suggesting modifying and simplifying procedures regulated in Decree 38. Back to top

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62 Headline Media : Managing food safety with decree violating the law : VNMedia Online Date : June 30, 2017 Tone : Neutral Link : Key message: Managing the wrong objects in the wrong way, authorities have violated Law on Food Safety, said Dr. Nguyen Dinh Cung, President of CIEM, at a seminar about Food Safety organized in the afternoon of June 30 in Hanoi. For many years, enterprises and household businesses have given negative feedbacks about procedures of certifying publication of food safety conformity, for there are too much unclear content, especially necessary conditions to be certified as conformed. These regulations are costly, time-consuming and burdensome to enterprises, adding cost to final products and reducing enterprises competitiveness, affecting the whole economy, emphasized Dr. Cung. Mr. Pham Thanh Binh, former head of Post Clearance Audit Department, General Department of Vietnam Customs, said: The current number of documents waiting for consideration is nearly With this number, obviously the time of certifying will be extended, and enterprises will complain, for sure. We request to remove these regulations, as they are not effective and do not protect consumers. Mr. Dau Anh Tuan, Head of Legal Department of VCCI, said: Procedure of certifying Publication of Food Safety Conformity is not clear, the process takes too much time. The review and consideration is subjective and with many procedures. This shows that the authority is putting the financial burden on enterprises, and consumers will be the ones subject to all costs when product prices increase. Ms. Nguyen Hong Minh, former Deputy Minister of Fisheries, said: The current procedure is unreasonably time-consuming. The business community has raised opinions, the Government has issued resolutions requesting amendment. Resolution No. 19 requests this decree to be modified, Deputy PM and MoH required to review and revise, simplify procedure, and it is still not modified yet. Even in the draft amendment decree, it is still not reviewed, said Ms. Minh. However, Mr. Tran Van Chau, head of inspection department, Agency of Food Safety, MoH, confirmed: The certification of food safety conformity is essential. Because everything related to human health must be strictly in line with government s standards. According to that, enterprises must perform product publication, announce and assess the conformity of their own products. The next step is organization s reviews and assessment. After that, governing authority will accept document and process the next steps.. Back to top

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65 Headline Media : 50% of business conditions need to be removed : Thanh Nien Online Date : Jul 1, 2017 Tone : Neutral Link html Key message: : On June 30, in Hanoi, CIEM, VCCI, VASEP co-organized a seminar about food safety regulation and expectations of modifying the draft amendment decree of Decree 38. Many representatives at the seminar share the same opinion that some regulations of Decree 38 are unnecessarily costly, time-consuming and burdensome to enterprises. Specifically, the inspection procedures are too complicated and not effective in ensure food safety, because the Agency of Food Safety only assesses submitted papers without visiting factories or testing the actual products, which is a waste of money and effort of both the state and enterprises. Some of the procedures are not even clear and can be interpreted in many ways, depending on the officials in charge. Moreover, the certification requirement of publication of food safety regulation conformity is not in line with Law on Food Safety and conflicts with Law on Standards and Technical Regulations. Representatives suggest removing this regulation and replace it with another form in compliance with current law. Back to top

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67 Headline Media : It takes months to acquire certificate of self-responsibility : Dien Dan Canh Tranh Quoc Gia Online Date : Jul 1, 2017 Tone : Neutral Link : Key message: Enterprises must spend months to follow procedure to acquire a certificate, which says that the enterprise, not the agency issuing certificate, is responsible for what declared in that certificate. On June 30, CIEM, VCCI, VASEP, VICOFA and VITAS co-organized a seminar themed Food safety from regulations to management practices; issues and modifying expectation at amendment decree of Decree 38/2012/ND-CP. A few days ago, VASEP propose suggestion to government agencies about the modification of Decree 38, in which the biggest issue is procedure of certifying publication of food safety regulation conformity. Dr. Nguyen Dinh Cung from CIEM said that procedure has been said to be not in line with Law on Food Safety and Law on Standards and Technical Regulations. There are too many unclear content, especially necessary conditions to be certified as conformed. These regulations are costly, time-consuming and burdensome to enterprises, adding cost to final products and reducing enterprises competitiveness, affecting the whole economy, according to Dr. Cung. Mr. Dau Anh Tuan from VCCI suggests that the agency composing policy should be different from the one issuing certificate. Lawyer Tran Ngoc Han, representative of AmCham confirms this regulation is not an effective and appropriate method to ensure food safety for the sake of consumers. Mr. Tran Van Chau, representative of Agency of Food Safety commits to keep record of these opinions, but says the modification of regulations must follow the law and needs careful consideration. Back to top

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69 Headline Media : One kind of cake with 12 ingredients needs 13 licenses : Sai Gon Dau Tu Tai Chinh Online Date : Jul 1, 2017 Tone : Neutral Link : giay-phep html Key message: Decree 38 guiding to implement Law on Food Safety with procedures of publication of food safety conformity is considered illegal and is an obstacle of business activities. At the meeting between representatives of associations such as tea, cocoa, seafood, dairy, VCCI and representatives of Agency of Food Safety (Ministry of Health) and related agencies this afternoon (Jun 30), representatives of associations agreed on proposing to remove this regulation. 1 package of cake must acquire 13 licenses Mr. Nguyen Dinh Cung, President of CIEM, said that procedures of publication of food safety conformity takes 1,5 months as regulated in Decree 38, however, the actual time is much longer, sometimes 3-6 months. The reasons, according to Mr. Cung, are too many procedures. The content of documents required is not specific, so it is arbitrary whether regulatory authorities consider it conforming or not. Once the enterprise is asked to review, the process starts from zero, which is time consuming and money consuming to the enterprise. Meanwhile, Mr. Dau Anh Tuan, Head of Legal Department of VCCI, said that the certification of publication of food safety conformity required in Decree 38 is not mentioned in Law on Food Safety and Law on Standards and Technical Regulations. An enterprise complained with us that they produced a type of cake with 12 ingredients and had to acquire 12 licenses, not to mention publication of regulation conformity, which added up to 13 licenses. Only a minor change in ingredients and they must repeat the process, which is moneyconsuming for enterprises, said Mr. Tuan. He also said management requirements are necessary, however, they have to be changed if they are against the law. He also thinks it s the mind of regulatory authorities that need to be changed. The policy implement agency is the one that compose it, therefore they compose a policy that benefits them and is easy for them, said him. Many people manage only 1% According to statistics of experts at the meeting, regulation on publication of food safety regulation conformity is against the law and the one responsible for it is Agency of Food Safety, Ministry of Health. Representative of AmCham complained that this regulation is not practical and not effective in food safety management. 99% cases of food poison happened at companies cafeterias, restaurants, street foods, etc. Only 1% of them are relating to packaged foods. However, regulatory agencies focus on managing this 1% with a lot of human, who does management on documents only. Representative of EuroCham complained that requirement of publication of food safety regulation conformity conflicted with 2 current laws and had no practical value, therefore proposed to remove it.

70 Enterprises are responsible for their publication, the Agency only reviews documents. However, Agency of Food Safety changes self-publication to licensing but takes no responsibility for the product! Responding to the business community, representative of Agency of Food Safety says that currently it accepts documents of publication of food safety regulation conformity online, which takes enterprises little time. Enterprises don t agree with this, however, explaining that each time they apply documents, experts of the Agency requires them to modify it according to their feelings, not to any principle. South East Asian countries such as Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia already apply management by input material and focus on post-inspection, unlike Vietnam, representative of an enterprises says. Representative of Agency of Food Safety recently said that with the current management level of Vietnam, we should do both pre-inspection and post-inspection at the same time. He also said the Agency s practices is not against the law. According to experts, however, at a discussion between Deputy PM Vu Duc Dam, Ministry of Health (MoH) and enterprises, MoH committed to quickly revise their certification requirement of publication of food safety regulation conformity in a way that is more beneficial to enterprises. So far, MoH has not yet revised and we find that the Ministry violates administrative discipline for not fulfilling that commitment, an enterprise s representative asked MoH. Back to top

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72 Headline Media : Unclear regulations must be removed : Dai Bieu Nhan Dan Online Date : Jul 2, 2017 Tone : Neutral Link Key message: : On June 30, CIEM, VCCI, VASEP, VICOFA and VITAS co-organized a seminar themed Food safety from regulations to management practices; issues and modifying expectation at amendment decree of Decree 38/2012/ND-CP. Mr. Nguyen Hoai Nam, Deputy Secretary of VASEP, said the biggest inadequacies of Decree 38 are procedures of conformity declaration and publication of food safety conformity. According to him, conformity declaration should be done by organizations or individuals on their own, and they are fully responsible for that declaration. However, Decree 38 requires organization and individuals to register with competent agency to be granted or re-granted Certificate of conformity to technical regulations, which is a form of granting sub-license. Similarly, procedure of registering for certificate of conformity to food safety regulations takes much more time than regulated. Therefore, according to associations, the registration for certificate granting is just like another sub-license, which is against the current spirit of simplifying regulations and administrative procedure. Mr. Dau Anh Tuan, head of legal department of VCCI, takes an example showing that with decree 38, enterprises must acquire dozens of certificates for the ingredients and the final product, which is unnecessary and troublesome to enterprises. Representative of AmCham said some enterprises spent 4 months and 2 days to register for certificate of conformity instead of 7 working days as regulated in Law on Standards and Technical Regulations. Especially, decree 38 said enterprises are fully responsible for the declaration instead of Agency of Food Safety. Then what is the point of this procedure of Agency of Food Safety, asked this representative. VASEP said it is necessary to modify regulations that are troublesome to enterprises Specifically, the testing and declaring conformity procedure should be shortened to enterprises sending samples for laboratory testing at assigned laboratories. Information of conformity will be announced on the laboratory s website. Regulatory agency instead of assessing papers, will focus on getting and testing products from the actual market. VASEP also suggests removing regulation of publication of food safety regulation conformity, which is not defined in Law on Food Safety. With countries that provide Health Certificate why exporting to Vietnam, enterprises suggest the government consider not requiring publication of regulation conformity with processed products. Instead, the importer is responsible for announcing related authorities and applying related importing documents, printing secondary label for product identification and is responsible for content of that label. This is how EU countries govern imported foods from Vietnam. Back to top

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75 Headline Media : Food safety management is still done on papers only : Infonet Online Date : Jul 2, 2017 Tone : Neutral Link Key message: : On June 30, in Hanoi, CIEM, VCCI, VASEP co-organized a seminar about food safety regulation and expectations of modifying the draft amendment decree of Decree 38. Many representatives at the seminar share the same opinion that some regulations of Decree 38 are unnecessarily costly, time-consuming and burdensome to enterprises. Specifically, the inspection procedures are too complicated and not effective in ensure food safety, because the Agency of Food Safety only assesses submitted papers without visiting factories or testing the actual products, which is a waste of money and effort of both the state and enterprises. Some of the procedures are not even clear and can be interpreted in many ways, depending on the officials in charge. Moreover, the certification requirement of publication of food safety regulation conformity is not in line with Law on Food Safety and conflicts with Law on Standards and Technical Regulations. Back to top

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78 Headline poisoning Media : Traders who make profit from chemical-treated foods are the cause of food : BizLive Online Date : Jul 2, 2017 Tone : Neutral Link : Key message: On June 30, CIEM, VCCI, VASEP, VICOFA and VITAS co-organized a seminar themed Food safety from regulations to management practices; issues and modifying expectation at amendment decree of Decree 38/2012/ND-CP. Many representatives at the seminar share the same opinion that some regulations of Decree 38 are unnecessarily costly, time-consuming and burdensome to enterprises. Specifically, the inspection procedures are too complicated and not effective in ensure food safety, because the Agency of Food Safety only assesses submitted papers without visiting factories or testing the actual products, which is a waste of money and effort of both the state and enterprises. Some of the procedures are not even clear and can be interpreted in many ways, depending on the officials in charge. Moreover, the certification requirement of publication of food safety regulation conformity is not in line with Law on Food Safety and conflicts with Law on Standards and Technical Regulations. Representative of AmCham complained that this regulation is not practical and not effective in food safety management. 99% cases of food poison happened at companies cafeterias, restaurants, street foods, etc. Only 1% of them are relating to packaged foods. However, regulatory agencies focus on managing this 1% with a lot of human, who does management on documents only. Enterprises are responsible for their publication, the Agency only reviews documents. However, Agency of Food Safety changes self-publication to licensing but takes no responsibility for the product! However, Mr. Tran Van Chau, head of inspection department, Agency of Food Safety, MoH, confirmed: The certification of food safety conformity is essential. Because everything related to human health must be strictly in line with government s standards. South East Asian countries such as Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia already apply management by input material and focus on post-inspection, unlike Vietnam.. Back to top

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81 Headline : Food safety management should be changed from pre-inspection to postinspection Media : Phap Luat & Xa Hoi Online Date : Jul 1, 2017 Tone : Neutral Link : Back to top

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84 Headline : Food safety management is still done on papers only Media : 24h Online Date : Jul 2, 2017 Tone : Neutral Link : Back to top

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86 Headline : Traders treats foods with chemical, enterprises and customers are desperate for help Media : Song Moi Online Date : Jul 2, 2017 Tone : Neutral Link : Back to top

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89 Headline : Seafood enterprises are tired of sub-licenses Media : Tin Nhanh Chung Khoan Online Date : Jul 3, 2017 Tone : Neutral Link : Back to top

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92 Headline : Many inadequacies of Decree No. 38 are not modified yet Media : PT-TH Soc Trang Online Date : Jul 3, 2017 Tone : Neutral Link : Back to top

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95 Headline : Enterprises want self-declaration of food standards, governing agencies deny Media : Dan Tri Online Date : Jul 3, 2017 Tone : Neutral Link : Back to top

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98 Headline : Food safety: enterprises wants right of self-declaration Media : Dat Viet Online Date : Jul 3, 2017 Tone : Neutral Link : Back to top

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101 Headline : Food safety: expectations about amendment decree Media : So Huu Tri Tue Online Date : Jul 3, 2017 Tone : Neutral Link : Back to top

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103 Headline : VASEP suggests removing regulations that cause problems to business activities Media : Dau Thau Online Date : Jul 3, 2017 Tone : Neutral Link : Back to top

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106 UNSUPPORTED

107 Headline Media : Fierce controversy over the suggestion of enterprises conformity self-declaration : An Ninh Thu Do Online Date : June 30, 2017 Tone : Neutral Link : Key message: On June 30, in Hanoi, CIEM, VCCI, VASEP co-organized a seminar about food safety regulation and expectations of modifying the draft amendment decree of Decree 38. Many representatives at the seminar share the same opinion that some regulations of Decree 38 are unnecessarily costly, time-consuming and burdensome to enterprises. Specifically, the inspection procedures are too complicated and not effective in ensure food safety, because the Agency of Food Safety only assesses submitted papers without visiting factories or testing the actual products, which is a waste of money and effort of both the state and enterprises. Some of the procedures are not even clear and can be interpreted in many ways, depending on the officials in charge. Moreover, the certification requirement of publication of food safety regulation conformity is not in line with Law on Food Safety and conflicts with Law on Standards and Technical Regulations. Representative of Agency of Food Safety recently said that with the current management level of Vietnam, we should do both pre-inspection and post-inspection at the same time. Back to top

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110 Headline Media : Un-tie enterprises by removing regulations? : VTC Online Date : July 1, 2017 Tone : Neutral : Link d html Key message: This afternoon (June 230), CIEM, VCCI, VASEP, VICOFA and VITAS co-organized a seminar themed Food safety from regulations to management practices; issues and modifying expectation at amendment decree of Decree 38/2012/ND-CP. Mr. Nguyen Hoai Nam, Deputy Secretary of VASEP, said the biggest inadequacies of Decree 38 are procedures of conformity declaration and publication of food safety conformity. According to him, conformity declaration should be done by organizations or individuals on their own, and they are fully responsible for that declaration. However, Decree 38 requires organization and individuals to register with competent agency to be granted or re-granted Certificate of conformity to technical regulations, which is a form of granting sub-license. Similarly, procedure of registering for certificate of conformity to food safety regulations takes much more time than regulated. Therefore, according to associations, the registration for certificate granting is just like another sub-license, which is against the current spirit of simplifying regulations and administrative procedure. Mr. Dau Anh Tuan, head of legal department of VCCI, takes an example showing that with decree 38, enterprises must acquire dozens of certificates for the ingredients and the final product, which is unnecessary and troublesome to enterprises. Representative of AmCham said some enterprises spent 4 months and 2 days to register for certificate of conformity instead of 7 working days as regulated in Law on Standards and Technical Regulations. Especially, decree 38 said enterprises are fully responsible for the declaration instead of Agency of Food Safety. Then what is the point of this procedure of Agency of Food Safety, asked this representative. VASEP said it is necessary to modify regulations that are troublesome to enterprises Specifically, the testing and declaring conformity procedure should be shortened to enterprises sending samples for laboratory testing at assigned laboratories. Information of conformity will be announced on the laboratory s website. Regulatory agency instead of assessing papers, will focus on getting and testing products from the actual market. VASEP also suggests removing regulation of publication of food safety regulation conformity, which is not defined in Law on Food Safety. Mr. Pham Thanh Binh, expert of USAID GIG, suggests removing clause 2 of Articles 3; clauses 4 & 5 of Article 4; removing Article 6; removing the phrase or certificate of conformity to food safety regulations at Articles 7, 8 and term h of clause 2 of Article 20. Representative of Agency of Food Safety, in response to opinions of associations, said that food safety management has direct impact on human health, therefore they can t remove these procedures. Back to top

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113 Headline Media : Allow enterprise to self-declare food conformity: controversy : Kinh Te va Du Bao Online Date : Jul 1, 2017 Tone : Neutral Link : -tranh-cai-kich-liet.html Key message: On June 30, in Hanoi, CIEM, VCCI, VASEP co-organized a seminar about food safety regulation and expectations of modifying the draft amendment decree of Decree 38. Many representatives at the seminar share the same opinion that some regulations of Decree 38 are unnecessarily costly, time-consuming and burdensome to enterprises. Specifically, the inspection procedures are too complicated and not effective in ensure food safety, because the Agency of Food Safety only assesses submitted papers without visiting factories or testing the actual products, which is a waste of money and effort of both the state and enterprises. Some of the procedures are not even clear and can be interpreted in many ways, depending on the officials in charge. Moreover, the certification requirement of publication of food safety regulation conformity is not in line with Law on Food Safety and conflicts with Law on Standards and Technical Regulations. Representatives suggest removing this regulation and replace it with another form in compliance with current law. However, Mr. Tran Van Chau, head of inspection department, Agency of Food Safety, MoH, confirmed: The certification of food safety conformity is essential. Because everything related to human health must be strictly in line with government s standards. Back to top

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116 Headline Media : Food standard self-declaration: should or shouldn t? : Giao Duc TPHCM Online Date : Jul 1, 2017 Tone : Neutral Link : Key message: On June 30, in Hanoi, CIEM, VCCI, VASEP co-organized a seminar about food safety regulation and expectations of modifying the draft amendment decree of Decree 38. Many representatives at the seminar share the same opinion that some regulations of Decree 38 are unnecessarily costly, time-consuming and burdensome to enterprises. Specifically, the inspection procedures are too complicated and not effective in ensure food safety, because the Agency of Food Safety only assesses submitted papers without visiting factories or testing the actual products, which is a waste of money and effort of both the state and enterprises. Some of the procedures are not even clear and can be interpreted in many ways, depending on the officials in charge. Moreover, the certification requirement of publication of food safety regulation conformity is not in line with Law on Food Safety and conflicts with Law on Standards and Technical Regulations. Representatives suggest removing this regulation and replace it with another form in compliance with current law. However, Mr. Tran Van Chau, head of inspection department, Agency of Food Safety, MoH, confirmed: The certification of food safety conformity is essential. Because everything related to human health must be strictly in line with government s standards. Back to top

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118 Thank you! Prepared by: Biz-eyes