The Prime Minister is impatient because many lower-level leaders are still sluggish.

The head of government has repeatedly reminded leaders of localities and ministries to take strong and decisive action in implementing directives and resolutions.

The 2017 online Government conference with localities has just concluded. For the first time, the General Secretary, the President, the Chairman of the National Assembly, and many members of the Politburo attended this Government conference.

Over the two days of this important event, it is evident that in all of the Prime Minister's directives and instructions to ministries, departments, and localities, the head of government clearly expressed his impatience with the "top-down" situation in the implementation of government and local tasks.

The Prime Minister affirmed: "The implementation phase is a weak point, a bottleneck, so 'the gap between words and actions, from committee meetings and provincial Party committees to the people and the grassroots, must be narrowed even better'."

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc

A strong government depends on strong local governments. Every province has its own advantages, but why is it that some provinces are able to leverage them to achieve breakthrough development, while others remain stagnant? According to the Prime Minister, the problem lies in whether the local leaders take decisive action.

At this conference, the Prime Minister made it clear that he wanted to send a message not only to those sitting in the front row of the hall, who are leaders of ministries and agencies, but also to those sitting in the second, third... rows, who are leaders of general departments, divisions, bureaus, and related agencies.

The Prime Minister clearly saw a reality: many tasks and policies were issued but ignored by implementing units. Many things were announced by superiors but not implemented by subordinates, leading to stagnation. Notices from provincial chairmen and departments went unanswered, and the Prime Minister particularly criticized the situation of "issuing policies indiscriminately, then nobody implements them."

Moreover, many localities deliberately act contrary to the government's directives. For example, regarding downsizing the workforce, while the general policy is to streamline the administrative apparatus and reduce the number of departments, many localities are creating even more units and departments.

According to the Prime Minister, reform and innovation must be systemic, especially among those providing advice. The Prime Minister expressed concern about whether the general departments, divisions, bureaus, and district-level agencies would innovate and reform, and whether they would adopt new technical advancements and digital technologies. “If leaders move down to the General Departments but the General Departments remain stagnant, providing old-fashioned advice without innovation, it will be very difficult. If only one part changes while the whole system doesn't, success is hard to achieve.”

Not only the Prime Minister, but also the five Deputy Prime Ministers, when speaking about their respective areas of responsibility, all expressed their expectation for more decisive action from leaders of localities, ministries, sectors, economic corporations, and business leaders...

In reality, many officials are dedicated and committed to their work at the local level, sacrificing themselves for the people's cause. However, that number seems small compared to the force that needs to be more proactive in order to operate the system smoothly and effectively.

According to VOV