The Chairman of the District People's Committee rarely meets with citizens every month.

Speaking at the Central Committee for Mass Mobilization's 2017 year-end review conference and 2018 task deployment conference on the morning of January 10, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc affirmed that the selection of the theme of mass mobilization in 2018 as "Government mass mobilization" is of great significance to the country's socio-economic development. At the conference, the Prime Minister pointed out achievements, experiences as well as limitations, difficulties and requirements for mass mobilization work.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc. Photo from the internet

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc assessed: In 2017, the Mass Mobilization Committees at all levels, departments, branches, political and social forces directed and had good practices in recognizing the role and position of mass mobilization work, proactively carried out mass mobilization work in all fields associated with the role and position of work; and strengthened coordination between forces and components to carry out the work.

The Mass Mobilization Committees at all levels have also identified key and central contents associated with emulation movements to carry out mass mobilization work, especially associated with Directive 05 on studying and following Uncle Ho's ideology, morality and lifestyle and Resolution 4 of the Central Committee (12th tenure) on preventing and repelling "self-evolution and self-transformation" among cadres and party members.

The Government, at the beginning of the year, signed a program to coordinate the implementation of the Party and State's policies, guidelines, and resolutions on mass mobilization work with the Central Mass Mobilization Commission; and the focus is on how to implement it after signing, how to coordinate with all levels, sectors, unions, localities, and socio-political organizations to effectively implement it.

Anh Son District Police (Nghe An) does a good job of social security work associated with mass mobilization work. Photo courtesy

Communication and information work has been stepped up; this is both a success and an experience in mass mobilization work, creating consensus among the people and Party committees and authorities in performing tasks.

However, in addition to highlighting achievements and lessons learned, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc also noted some shortcomings and limitations in mass mobilization work that all levels, sectors and localities need to overcome. That is, the concretization of the Party's mass mobilization work is sometimes not timely and has not fully promoted the combined strength of the entire political system in mass mobilization work.

“In some cases, it is still very clear that we have not yet assessed and forecasted in a timely manner the developments and thoughts of the people, and have been slow to innovate the content and methods of mass mobilization in the new situation. Therefore, policies and measures are sometimes superficial, leading to weak impacts on the masses, and an effective work plan has not been prepared. The lack of struggle, dialogue, answers, and explanations to the people is also one of the reasons that has brought to light the long-standing shortcomings and inadequacies,” Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc emphasized.

Some Party committees and authorities have not paid due attention to mass mobilization work, and as a result have not implemented grassroots democracy regulations well; many urgent issues of the people have not been listened to and handled, especially in terms of openness and transparency; in many localities and bases, coordination between the Fatherland Front and mass organizations has not met requirements in some places and at some times.

A not small number of cadres and party members are still bureaucratic, distant from the people, corrupt, negative, and have lost credibility with the people.

Leaders of Con Cuong district (Nghe An) met and visited people. Photo: Archive

The information system, especially social networks, has not had strong and appropriate countermeasures to expose and combat in a more timely manner the negative impacts of information on social networks and the internet on the people, on mass mobilization work, on the leadership of our Party... But effective measures to combat these impacts are often not done well, not strong enough, so the people are still greatly distracted.

Next, the Prime Minister stated: In 2018, the Government has chosen the 10 words "discipline, integrity, action, creativity, efficiency" to act; Resolution 01 - NQ/CP on the main tasks and solutions to direct and implement the socio-economic development plan and the state budget estimate for 2017 has proposed 9 tasks with 242 quite specific measures. At this conference, it was agreed to identify the key activities as the year of "Government Mass Mobilization", therefore, it is requested that all levels, sectors and localities thoroughly grasp and strictly implement this task.

After this conference, "all levels of government must have an implementation plan, a specific action program to carry out the 2018 focus of "Government Mass Mobilization" - Comrade Nguyen Xuan Phuc emphasized. Specifically, there are the following tasks:

Launch and have specific plans for all levels of government. Have a plan to inspect the implementation of the Year of Civil Service Administration.

Our civil service system has about 1 million people, the civil service system has about 2.5 million people. These are the people directly related to the people. If we do a good job of mass mobilization, the people will trust us, increasing the prestige of the Party and the political system. But if we do not do a good job, it will have the opposite effect, causing bureaucracy, distance from the people, and the disease of "hot above, cold below" will still occur.

To successfully complete the tasks of the 12th National Party Congress, the action platform as well as the annual work tasks, we need to attach importance to the important role of mobilizing the combined strength for the whole country to complete the 2018 socio-economic tasks through mass mobilization work.

The Prime Minister requested departments, branches and localities to coordinate closely to carry out key tasks well: seriously develop a plan to implement Prime Minister's Directive 16 on mass mobilization work. "Must take care from afar, from early on". In particular, the innovation of mass mobilization work of state agencies, state administrative agencies, and authorities at all levels must be proactively developed and implemented well.

Every cadre, civil servant, and party member must be responsible for mobilizing the people, listening to what the people say, speaking so that the people understand, making the people believe, and being an exemplary model for the people to follow. The entire political system, especially the governments, must do mass mobilization work together with the Mass Mobilization Committee.

Continue to improve the legal policy system related to human rights, civil rights, and legitimate interests of the people. Implement well the grassroots democracy regulations, promote the people's right to mastery. Immediately handle people's concerns right at the grassroots level.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc also pointed out that there is still a situation where district chairmen rarely receive citizens monthly as prescribed, and many commune chairmen still rarely dialogue with the people.

It is necessary to improve the effectiveness of the coordination program to be of better quality and longer term between the Government and the Central Committee for Mass Mobilization, and it is recommended that localities have a coordination plan between the People's Committee and the Provincial Committee for Mass Mobilization.

An important and fundamental issue that must be implemented is to take care of the material and spiritual life of the people. Growth is for the people, so that there are no more extremely poor people, no one is left behind on the path of development of the country. Promote administrative reform, create all conditions for people and businesses, because in many localities the mechanism of asking and giving is still very heavy.

Carry out dialogue, receive people, resolve complaints and denunciations well; do not let small things become big things. Innovate the way of evaluating cadres, civil servants and public employees, including the important thing of using the level of people's satisfaction with cadres and civil servants as a measure. Strengthen inspection and examination of public services. Information, propaganda and mobilization work must be innovated. "It is necessary to turn words into concrete actions, especially in the Year of Government Mass Mobilization" - Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc emphasized.