Resolutely transfer department-level leaders when public opinion causes trouble in handling administrative procedures.

On the morning of December 6, continuing the 17th Session, the 18th Provincial People's Council held discussions in Groups. 20 Provincial People's Council delegates from the constituencies of Vinh City, the towns of Cua Lo, Hoang Mai and the districts of Hung Nguyen and Do Luong discussed in Group 1.

Comrade Thai Thanh Quy - Member of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Council, Head of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation attended the discussion at Group 1. Also attending were comrades: Nguyen Thi Kim Chi - Member of the Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee, Secretary of the Party Committee of the Provincial Agencies Bloc; Phan Duc Dong - Member of the Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee, Secretary of the Vinh City Party Committee. Comrade Nguyen Huu An - Chairman of the People's Committee of Hoang Mai town, Head of the Group chaired and directed the discussion session.

A PART OF CIVIL SERVANTS STILL CAUSE HARASSMENT AND TROUBLESHOLDING

At the discussion session, there were 7 comments from the Provincial People's Council delegates and 4 comments from leaders of departments and branches.

Assessing the administrative reform work in 2023, which was directed by the province very drastically, extensively, fully, promptly and with significant improvements, however, delegate Nguyen Duy Can (constituency of Vinh City) said that some areas still overlap, the issuance of land use right certificates is still cumbersome; even some cadastral officers cause trouble for people in the process of processing documents. "Voters want more breakthrough administrative reform", said the delegate of Vinh City.

Also related to this content, delegate Phan Thi Hoan (Vinh City constituency) said that it has created a movement in the political system that is highly appreciated by people and businesses. However, the PCI index has low important component indexes such as: Market entry, land access, time costs...

Thereby, the delegates suggested continuing to have stronger, more specific solutions in administrative reform from both sides. State agencies need to improve public service ethics. Businesses and people also need to access and resolve administrative procedures through online public services.

Explaining the delegates' opinions, Director of the Department of Home Affairs Nguyen Viet Hung said: There have been very positive changes in administrative reform. Nghe An is also the only province where Party secretaries are the Heads of the Steering Committee for administrative reform. That demonstrates high political determination in removing this bottleneck and some administrative reform indicators in the province have changed, especially the reform of administrative procedures and improvement of the investment environment.

Regarding the opinion that administrative procedures are still overlapping, the Director of Nghe An Department of Home Affairs said: As of November 10, 2023, the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee has signed and announced 40 decisions with 780 administrative procedures at all 3 levels of province, district and commune, and has been public, transparent, and specific in steps and processes, including administrative procedures for granting land use right certificates.

However, according to the Director of the Department of Home Affairs, in reality, there are overlaps in the laws, so the phenomenon of administrative procedures cannot avoid that. However, with the announcement of administrative procedures, overlaps have been greatly reduced. He also suggested that through understanding the reality, delegates discuss overlapping procedures to make recommendations to the sectors for handling.

Regarding the handling of administrative procedures, the head of the Nghe An Department of Home Affairs also frankly acknowledged that the delegates' reflection that a number of cadres and civil servants still harass and cause trouble is correct.

This year, the province has considered disciplining a series of civil servants: At the department, branch, and district levels, one leader was prosecuted and two were reprimanded. Five leaders at the department, branch, and district level were disciplined...

Along with that, the Provincial Steering Committee for Administrative Reform also requested that department-level leaders who were said to be causing trouble be transferred to other positions. The Director of the Nghe An Department of Home Affairs said: At the meeting of the Provincial Steering Committee for Administrative Reform, the Standing Committee of the Steering Committee pointed out two department-level department heads who were said to be causing trouble and requested that they be transferred to other positions, which one department has already done.

With the above drastic moves, Mr. Nguyen Viet Hung affirmed the province's determination to reform the administration, but also asked the delegates to share and encourage the civil servants in performing their duties to meet the requirements of handling procedures quickly and accurately. Because civil servants must work according to the law, while people do things that are not prohibited by law.

Regarding the PCI Index, the Director of the Nghe An Department of Home Affairs said that the province is determined to improve its ranking. Immediately after each announcement, the Provincial People's Committee requests the development of solutions to overcome the limitations of the component indexes.

Also related to the economy, some delegates expressed concerns about the low disbursement rate of public investment capital, this year's budget revenue being lower than in 2022... Leaders of the Department of Planning and Investment and the Department of Finance reported and explained.

Director of Nghe An Department of Planning and Investment Pham Hong Quang said that the province has been very proactive in implementing solutions to accelerate the disbursement of public investment capital and the results so far are higher than the national average. He affirmed: It is expected that this year, the disbursement rate of public investment capital in Nghe An will reach over 95%.

4 DEVELOPMENT SPACES, 7 KEY TOURISM PRODUCT TYPES

At the discussion session, the opinions of the Provincial People's Council delegates also mentioned a lot about tourism development. Mr. Tran Phan Long (Cua Lo town constituency) suggested solutions to build tours, organize events, and differentiated tourism products; improve the quality and infrastructure services for tourists.

Venerable Thich Tho Lac (Vinh City constituency) proposed additional solutions to coordinate, exploit, and promote spiritual tourism in the province.

Regarding the above issues, Deputy Director of Nghe An Department of Tourism Nguyen Thi Thanh An said: Up to this point in 2023, Nghe An tourism has welcomed more than 8.3 million visitors, including more than 5.2 million overnight guests, with revenue reaching 7,800 billion VND; thereby achieving and exceeding the year's growth target.

The Deputy Director of the Provincial Department of Tourism said: Building Nghe An's tourism tours is based on 4 spatial orientations for tourism development and 7 main types of tourism products approved by the Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee through the Tourism Development Strategy to 2030, vision 2040.

The above 4 orientations and 7 types are built based on the advantages of local tourism resources, the attractiveness of the destination and favorable factors of infrastructure serving tourism.

The leader of Nghe An Tourism said: Recently, the industry has built a number of model tours that have been exploited very effectively by travel companies such as: tours combining sea tourism with culture and history.

Regarding human resources in the tourism industry, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh An said: Nghe An currently has 17 tourism training facilities and by November 2023, there will be 9,315 workers working at tourism service businesses, nearly equal to the peak in 2019 before being affected by the Covid-19 epidemic (10,340 workers in the tourism industry). In the coming time, the industry believes that the labor force will meet the needs of the tourism business.

However, leaders of Nghe An tourism industry expressed concern that the income of workers in the tourism industry is still relatively low, so workers are willing to quit their jobs when difficulties arise.

Regarding solutions in the coming time, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh An said: The Department will continue to strengthen training, organize competitions, professional skills, and behavior for tourism workers; propose policies for those who wish to work in the tourism sector; recommend that the governing bodies of training institutions make changes in the program to meet domestic and international standards.

Regarding the proposal to promote spiritual tourism, the Deputy Director of Nghe An Department of Tourism affirmed: This type of tourism has been, is and will be considered the focus of Nghe An tourism. Currently, this type of tourism contributes up to 38% of both tourism revenue and total number of visitors to the province annually.