MINSK, 18 May (BelTA) – The digitization of administrative procedures will allow substantially improving the performance of private companies, BelTA learned from Deputy Director of the Entrepreneurship Department of the Belarusian Economy Ministry Irina Babachenok at the international digital forum #GBC (Government. Business. Citizens).
According to Irina Babachenok, the removal of excessive administrative pressure is a universally recognized way of creating a favorable environment for the development of entrepreneurship. The optimization of mechanisms used for interaction between the state and the private sector is an important factor for reducing the administrative burden. The adoption of Belarus president decree No.240, which legislated the maximum use of information technologies for interaction between the state and the private sector, gave a new impulse to the digitization of administrative procedures.
The administrative procedures registry rap.gov.by has been operational since March 2022. The website offers official information about all the administrative procedures the private sector may be interested in, including costs, lists/forms of all kinds of papers, deadlines for making decisions, and other kinds of information. The registry also offers information about what agencies businesses are supposed to contact (physical addresses of authorized bodies, working hours, contact phones of specialists, banking details). The Economy Ministry is in charge of coordinating and maintaining the registry while the National Center for Electronic Services takes care of operating the website. The website is intended for founders and heads of companies – all of those, who are primarily interested in information about administrative procedures.
At present the registry lists 692 administrative procedures. The information is updated and expanded every day. The website is expected to reduce administrative costs of commercial entities. The website will offer the ability to perform administrative procedures online in the future. It will apply to all the administrative procedures, which digitization is economically advisable, the Economy Ministry representative noted.
Irina Babachenok also mentioned that a national index of administrative burden will be developed. Its ultimate goal is to gradually reduce administrative burden on the private sector by reducing standard costs. The index is supposed to become part of the digital infrastructure once it is integrated into the administrative procedures registry. The approach to organizing interaction between the state and the private sector will have to be rethought by means of optimizing and automating business processes and by arranging coordinated work of IT systems.
The Economy Ministry representative reminded that in November 2021 the government decided to set up the Servicization and Reengineering Agency as an integral element for reducing the administrative burden.
The purpose of the work on digitizing administrative procedures is to make the process simple and transparent both for commercial entities and for those, who carry out such procedures and offer such services. It is also supposed to get rid of excessive requirements with regard to the paperwork Belarusian businesses are supposed to submit, reduce the time businesses spend waiting for decisions to be made, and to reduce the bureaucratic burden.
The second international digital forum #GBC (Government. Business. Citizens) began in the National Library of Belarus on 18 May under the slogan “Achievements of the state and the private sector for citizens”. Taking part in the forum are heads of government agencies and organizations, representatives of IT companies, banks, the private sector, and the social sphere. The forum is designed to create dialogue platforms for closer cooperation and search for new solutions, which can improve the effectiveness of interaction of the state, the private sector, and citizens. The forum is also supposed to present Belarus' accomplishments in the sphere of digital transformation.
Taking part in the forum are heads of government agencies and organizations, representatives of IT companies, banks, the private sector, and the social sphere. The forum is held under the aegis of an independent regulator in the sphere of information and communication technologies, which functions are performed by the Operations and Analysis Center under the President of the Republic of Belarus. The forum has been organized by the National Traffic Exchange Center with assistance of the National Center for Electronic Services and Belarusian Cloud Technologies (beCloud).
