Changing mindset for strong economic and urban development in Vinh city

The intersection area in front of Vinh Market. Photo courtesy of Thanh Cuong

Many areas are slow to change

It must be affirmed that recently, Vinh city has had many innovations in thinking and decisive actions through the leadership, direction and management of the Party Committee and government from the city to the wards and communes.

The city continues to affirm its position as a locomotive of economic growth when the economic growth rate in 2019 reached 9.15%. The city's budget revenue is estimated at more than VND 2,376 billion, accounting for more than 15% of the total budget revenue of the whole province.

The city has also innovated its thinking, perspectives and approaches to "activate" economic sectors to participate in production and business development; at the same time, it has formed night-time business activities, put the night street into operation, prepared to put the walking street into operation before the New Year and is currently coordinating to research and develop night-time services...

Mr. Tran Ngoc Tu - Deputy Secretary of the City Party Committee, Chairman of the City People's Committee said that the city is lagging behind in both aspects: economic and urban. Photo: Mai Hoa

Besides the movements, many economic experts also believe that Vinh is facing a lag behind other first-class cities in the country.

According to Mr. Tran Ngoc Tu - Deputy Secretary of the City Party Committee, Chairman of the City People's Committee, Vinh "lags behind" in both economic and urban aspects. The city does not have a clear direction for economic development, which sectors are prioritized; there are no economic models that are unique and breakthrough.

And Vinh city urban area does not have any unique and outstanding works and the infrastructure in general still has many shortcomings.

The economic lag of the city was more evident when at the conference summarizing the Party building work in 2019 and deploying the tasks for 2020 of the City Party Committee held on December 13, comrade Thai Thanh Quy - Alternate member of the Party Central Committee, Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee made a comparison: Although the economic growth rate of Vinh city is high at 9.15%, it is still much lower than that of the two adjacent cities: Thanh Hoa city has maintained a growth rate of about 15% in all years of its term, while Ha Tinh city has maintained a growth rate of 12 - 13%.

Vinh City focuses on urban beautification, putting walking streets into operation before New Year's Day. Photo: Mai Hoa

Along with the lag, the resolution of some outstanding contents and tasks has not been implemented effectively by the city and wards and communes. The issue of granting new certificates and exchanging certificates of agricultural land use rights and residential land for households in communes merged into Vinh city has emerged. Although this content has been raised in many forums.

At the 11th session of the City People's Council for the 2016-2021 term, Mr. Vo Dinh Hoang - Secretary of the Nghi Lien Commune Party Committee assessed that the results in 2019 compared to 2018 were almost unchanged; people still had to travel many times and had their documents returned at least 3-5 times; recommended that the city clarify responsibilities and propose specific solutions for this problem.

Admitting the slowness in the work of granting and exchanging land use right certificates for people, Mr. Le Quoc Tuan - Director of the City Land Use Right Registration Office said that in the process of processing documents, the views between the Tax Department, the City Land Use Right Registration Office and the City Department of Natural Resources and Environment are still inconsistent in resolving people's requests.

Administrative reform work still has many shortcomings. Photo taken at the "one-stop" department of Le Loi ward. Photo: Mai Hoa

However, in recent months, agencies have been researching on the basis of regulations to have a consensus in handling some difficult files to speed up progress.

Referring to another perspective, Mr. Nguyen Van Ngoc - Head of the City's Department of Natural Resources and Environment said that, besides limited capacity, the sense of responsibility of land officials in some communes is not high, and they are not focused on completing documents for people.

Regarding the settlement of citizens' complaints and denunciations, according to Mr. Le Sy Chien - Vice Chairman of the City People's Committee, although the settlement rate is high, reaching 97% of complaints under the authority of the City People's Committee Chairman and 94% under the authority of the Ward and Commune People's Committee Chairmen, there are still a number of cases that have not been resolved.

The handling of petitions in some wards and communes still has errors, is handled perfunctorily, and is passed on to higher authorities. There are still many conclusions and decisions that have come into legal effect but have not been implemented.

In administrative reform, there are still people's complaints about a number of officials and civil servants lacking a sense of responsibility, handling problems slowly, causing trouble for people and businesses.

Officials from the city's specialized departments and offices check the construction progress of the regulating lake. Photo: Mai Hoa

Good implementation of personnel will solve the underlying cause.

The above difficulties and shortcomings have been frankly acknowledged by the City Party Committee and People's Committee and the causes, both objective and subjective, have been clarified. According to Mr. Tran Ngoc Tu - Deputy Secretary of the City Party Committee, Chairman of the City People's Committee, the deepest and most fundamental cause lies in the team of cadres, civil servants and public employees from the city to the wards and communes. Accordingly, many cadres, civil servants and public employees work inactively, for personal interests, leading to poor quality and progress in solving work.

Based on the clear identification of the causes, the Standing Committee of the City Party Committee, the People's Council and the City People's Committee set a high determination to innovate in leadership, direction and management. First, the City People's Committee met with more than 600 businesses to receive knowledge from businesses as well as the city's responsibility towards businesses.

The city also organized a consultation forum with experts, professors, doctors, and people experienced in economic development to give advice to the city; at the same time, proposed to the province to have special mechanisms.

At the same time, the city is also determined to promote administrative reform, "the focus is on the staff's mindset changing and if they want to change, they have to really do it, really commit, really understand, and really worry; if they just talk, they don't need many people" - Chairman of the City People's Committee Tran Ngoc Tu emphasized.

Mr. Tran Ngoc Tu also added that, through synthesis, the City People's Committee has 323 meetings a year. If each cadre and civil servant attends meetings regularly, there will be no time to research, to think and to change. This is an issue that will be rectified in the coming time. The City People's Committee is also completing a set of criteria for building a more "elite" team of cadres and civil servants of the City People's Committee; linking the development of a set of criteria to tighten discipline, transparent administrative discipline, how to make each cadre and civil servant strive.

The evaluation of cadres, civil servants and public employees also has criteria to ensure objectivity, avoid the "all-in-one" mentality or eliminate the idea of ​​priority in evaluation to increase salary; strictly handle cadres who do not meet standards and conditions.

To gradually materialize the above determination, recently, Vinh City People's Committee has conducted an examination of the entire staff and civil servants with 140 heads, deputy heads and specialists of departments, offices and professional units.

Vinh City has many apartment complexes with inadequate investment in traffic infrastructure and public works. Photo courtesy of Thanh Cuong

According to Mr. Nguyen Van Chinh - Head of the City Party Committee's Organization Committee and Head of the City's Internal Affairs Department, based on the results of the assessment of skills, capacity and general knowledge to evaluate and classify the team in a substantial way; thereby creating a change in awareness and responsibility among the team of cadres and experts of the City People's Committee to be more concerned and worried about their work. This is also the basis for rearranging, training, fostering and streamlining the staff.

On the other hand, the City People's Committee has also arranged, transferred, and appointed 22 key officials of a number of specialized departments of the city, wards, and communes with the hope of creating new changes and breakthroughs for the city.

Currently, the City People's Committee is proposing that the Standing Committee of the City Party Committee and the City People's Council establish a public administration center, in conjunction with the issuance of new regulations to tighten discipline and administrative order. At the same time, it is proposed that the City Party Committee soon develop regulations on training, fostering and developing human resources, ensuring the development of qualified personnel with good thinking ability and capacity to be able to take on important positions and spearheads of the city.