Nghe An: There is still a lot of room for PAPI index ranking to increase

Recently, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Vietnam coordinated with a number of organizations to publish the Vietnam Provincial Governance and Public Administration Performance Index (PAPI) Report. Nghe An Newspaper interviewed Mr. Le Xuan Dai - former member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, former Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, member of the Socio-Economic Advisory Group to the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee about the results of the PAPI Index of Nghe An province in 2018.

Vinh City.

Good news

PV:According to the results of the announcement of the Provincial Governance and Public Administration Performance Index (PAPI) Report in Vietnam, Nghe An ranked 4th nationwide with 46.57/80 points, previously in 2017, Nghe An ranked 44th nationwide. How do you evaluate the jump in Nghe An's PAPI ranking in 2018?

Mr. Le Xuan Dai:I was very pleased to know the results of early 2019, the announcement of the Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI), Nghe An improved 2 ranks from 21st to 19th. And recently, the announcement of the Provincial Governance and Public Administration Performance Index in Vietnam (PAPI), we were very excited when the ranking increased dramatically from 44th in 2017 to 4th in 2018.

The reason we have such a spectacular improvement is that in 2018, the Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee, the Provincial People's Committee, all levels and sectors have made outstanding efforts in administrative reform, comprehensively improving the component indicators. The content axes of the province's PAPI index have improved significantly compared to 2017.

2018 is the year Nghe An province chose to implement 7 pilot units in departments, branches and Vinh City People's Committee. These are important departments, branches and branches whose implementation of administrative reform will certainly create a spillover effect in administrative reform for the province.

The spectacular improvement in Nghe An's PAPI index in 2018 shows the efforts of the government apparatus at all levels, the recognition and praise of the people, for better state agencies.

Officials and civil servants of Hoa Binh town, Tuong Duong handle administrative procedures for people. Photo: Thanh Le

PV:So, in your opinion, what is the significance of the PAPI index to the socio-economic development of Nghe An province?

Mr. Le Xuan Dai:The PAPI index measures and evaluates the effectiveness of governance and public administration systems at the provincial level in Vietnam based on people's experiences and perceptions. In addition to reflecting and evaluating the level of satisfaction, thoughts and aspirations of people towards government levels, officials and civil servants when interacting and transacting with agencies at all levels, PAPI also reflects feedback from society on the performance of government and public administration agencies in localities nationwide.

Through this channel, people see that their rights are guaranteed and their voices are taken into account in the spirit of the Ordinance on implementing democracy in communes, wards and towns, contributing to building a clean and strong government that serves the people.

PAPI, PCI and the Public Administration Reform Index (PAR INDEX) are three indexes of great significance to Nghe An in particular, other localities and the country in general. Because improving and upgrading these three indexes will contribute to improving the investment environment and enhancing the competitiveness of the province and the country.

Vinh Customs Branch handles customs clearance procedures for businesses. Photo: Thanh Le

Improving the three indexes means creating consensus in public opinion, creating people's trust in the State apparatus and also creating increasingly greater trust in businesses.

In my opinion, if we can improve those three indicators, we will certainly promote the successful implementation of socio-economic goals, first of all for 2019, and move towards the successful implementation of the goals set out in the Resolution of the 18th Provincial Party Congress for the 2015-2020 term and Resolution 26 for Nghe An province.

Great room for promotion

PV:In 2018, Nghe An's PAPI ranked in the top 4 nationwide, which is very high. The higher the ranking, the harder it is to improve in the following years, and if you do not focus, you will even fall behind. So, in your opinion, what should Nghe An do to maintain and improve its PAPI index in the following years?

Mr. Le Xuan Dai:In 2018, we ranked 4th nationwide, which was a spectacular leap.

However, our total score is only 46.57 points out of 80 points. The gap between our achieved score and the ceiling score is still very far. Thus, there is still a lot of room for us to improve our PAPI index in the coming years.

Besides, the province with the highest ranking in 2018 is Ben Tre with 47.05 points, so the gap between the first ranked province and Nghe An ranked 4th is not far and vice versa, the gap between us and the latter province is also not far.

The province's PAPI index has fluctuated greatly in previous years. Therefore, without strong solutions, we risk not being able to maintain our ranking but rather falling, because certainly after the announcement of the national PAPI index, other localities will review the results and have strong solutions to accelerate to continue improving PAPI.

Officials of Tao Son commune (Anh Son) receive citizens. Photo: Thanh Le

We move but they do not stand still, so we should not be subjective, not satisfied with the results achieved but need to learn from experience, analyze and evaluate more deeply the results of 2018, clarify the shortcomings and limitations in implementing the component indicators of PAPI in 2018, especially the indicators that we have not achieved as expected.

The 2018 PAPI index ranking results are both opportunities and challenges that require us to exploit opportunities in 2019 to accelerate to achieve even better results.

I also believe that in 2019, with the stronger participation of Party committees, authorities, agencies, departments and branches at all levels in comprehensively improving PAPI indicators, we will certainly have the conditions to achieve the highest level in 2019.

PV:Thank you!