Prime Minister requires 'what is said must be done', creating administrative reform breakthroughs in 2022

Also attending the meeting were comrades: Pham Thi Thanh Tra - Minister of Home Affairs, Deputy Head of the Steering Committee; Tran Van Son - Minister, Head of the Government Office, Deputy Head of the Steering Committee; representatives of leaders of ministries, branches, and central agencies who are members of the Steering Committee.

The work of building and perfecting institutions and laws receives special attention.

The report at the meeting said that in 2021, with high determination, great efforts, drastic, effective and efficient actions of the Steering Committee and its members, the work of building and perfecting institutions and laws received special attention and had many innovations.

During the year, two national conferences on institutional development and improvement and decentralization were held. The Government held three thematic sessions on law-making. The Government submitted two laws to the National Assembly for approval and reviewed and commented on six draft laws. The Government reviewed, commented on, and approved 23 proposals for law-making; issued 200 resolutions and 139 decrees. The Prime Minister issued 41 legal decisions and 36 directives.

Administrative procedure reform was strongly promoted despite the complicated pandemic context. During the year, the country reduced and simplified 1,101 business regulations; approved plans to reduce and simplify 924 regulations and amended and supplemented 166 legal documents under the State management of 7 ministries.

The settlement of administrative procedures under the one-stop and inter-connected one-stop mechanism at the One-stop Departments at all levels is increasingly improved in the direction of professionalism, publicity, transparency, democracy and modernity.

The organizational structure and apparatus in ministries and branches have been improved and arranged in a streamlined direction, operating effectively and efficiently. Localities have basically completed the arrangement of the organizational apparatus within specialized agencies and equivalent agencies under the People's Committees at the provincial and district levels. The number of organizations at the department level has been reduced by 7; the number of organizations within specialized agencies at the department level has been reduced by 1,648; public service units have been reduced by 12.35% compared to 2015.

The civil service system has many positive innovations. Accordingly, decentralization has been enhanced; administrative procedure reform has been made; recruitment policy has been innovated; staff reduction has been achieved, with a 10.01% reduction in civil servant staff and 11.67% reduction in career staff... The Ministry of Home Affairs alone has many innovations and reforms, such as decentralizing the organization of civil servant promotion exams, promoting professional titles of public employees and removing mandatory regulations on certificates.

Notably, the digital transformation and e-Government construction towards digital Government have made many strides. In particular, the National Population Database System and the Citizen Identification System have been completed and put into operation, using citizen identification cards with electronic chips to effectively serve social management, especially for elections and Covid-19 prevention and control. The National Document Interconnection Axis, the National Public Service Portal, the National Reporting Information System and the Information Center, the Government and the Prime Minister have all received attention, organized and operated well, promoting positive effects.

At the meeting, delegates discussed and clarified the advantages, difficulties and challenges for administrative reform; analyzed in depth, evaluated and pointed out new and urgent contents that ministries, branches and localities must implement in the coming time and proposed many good, practical ideas and necessary solutions to promote administrative reform in 2022 and the coming time...

Delegates also assessed the organization and operation of the Public Administration Service Center and the One-Stop-Shop Unit at ministries, branches and localities, and discussed and gave opinions on the Draft Regulations on the operation of the Steering Committee.

On behalf of the Government, the Prime Minister commended ministries, branches, agencies and localities for their efforts with many bright spots in administrative reform work in 2021.Photo: VGP

Concluding the meeting, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh highly appreciated the reports and comments that were enthusiastic, frank, responsible, and objectively reflected the actual situation; assigned the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Government Office, and the Standing Office of the Steering Committee to filter, absorb opinions, and complete the reports and drafts.

The Prime Minister stated that in 2021, in the spirit of inheritance, stability, innovation and development, inheriting and promoting the results of previous years, we have focused on doing well a number of tasks in administrative reform.

Specifically, we have focused on building and perfecting institutions and legal bases for administrative reform; researching and cutting down administrative processes and procedures to make them simpler, more streamlined, and more convenient for people and businesses; increasing investment in information technology and digital transformation to serve administrative reform more effectively and substantially; contributing to preventing and combating corruption, negativity, and harassment in the system of administrative agencies; and have been recognized by people, businesses, and international friends for their progress.

The index on improving the quality of legal regulations in 2021 in the Vietnam Innovation Index was assessed by the World Intellectual Property Organization to have increased by 6 places.

On behalf of the Government, the Prime Minister commended ministries, branches, agencies and localities for their efforts with many bright spots in administrative reform work in 2021.

The Prime Minister requested that, first of all, it is necessary to raise awareness, role and responsibility of leaders in leading, directing and organizing the implementation of administrative reform work.Photo: VGP

However, administrative reform has not yet met the development requirements in the new situation and the expectations of people and businesses; there are still concerns about "sub-licenses"; investment in leadership, direction, implementation organization and resource allocation for administrative reform is limited and lacking in attention in some places and at some times.

The Prime Minister pointed out that this has both subjective and objective causes, but the subjective cause is mainly due to the awareness, determination, efforts, attention, leadership, direction, and implementation of the heads of administrative levels. This is a very fundamental cause because administrative reform is related to institutions, organizations, apparatus, people, operations, investment resources, processes, and administrative procedures.

The Prime Minister stated that the goal in 2022 is to create a breakthrough in administrative reform, especially administrative procedures related to people and businesses, to arouse and mobilize all resources for national development and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of management of ministries, branches and localities.

The Prime Minister requested a unified view that investment in administrative reform is investment in development and this investment must be focused, not spread out, and must be done as soon as possible. The motto is "what is said must be done", in substance, not in formality, taking products, efficiency in serving people and businesses, and improving the efficiency and effectiveness of agencies' operations as a measure.

Improve the efficiency of national management, administration and governance

Regarding specific tasks, the Prime Minister requested that, first of all, it is necessary to raise awareness, roles and responsibilities of leaders in leading, directing and organizing the implementation of administrative reform work.

Regarding agencies and units, the Prime Minister emphasized the requirement of decentralization, delegation of authority, and individualization of responsibilities along with reasonable allocation of resources, improving the capacity of enforcement officers, strengthening inspection, supervision, and consistent implementation from the central to local levels.

Along with that, continue to promote the review and improvement of institutions on administrative reform. Whatever the functions, tasks and powers of any level, ministry, branch or locality, that level, ministry, branch or locality must proactively resolve them. If it exceeds their authority, they must boldly propose to the competent authority to decide, and persevere for the common goal.

The Prime Minister also emphasized that administrative reform must contribute to improving the effectiveness of national management, administration and governance in general and of administrative levels, ministries, branches and localities in particular.

Comrade Pham Thi Thanh Tra - Minister of Home Affairs, Deputy Head of the Steering Committee spoke at the meeting.Photo: VGP

The Prime Minister gave an example and welcomed the recent review by a number of agencies of unnecessary diplomas and certificates, avoiding formalities, manipulation, and negativity, which has been supported by public opinion and society.

The Prime Minister emphasized the spirit of sticking very closely to reality, what is really necessary should be included in regulations, processes, and standards, what is not necessary should be resolutely eliminated.

Be humble, listen receptively, don't just listen and then leave it at that.

The Prime Minister requested to promote and improve the efficiency of the online service delivery model, especially 25 essential administrative procedures prioritized for integration and sharing of population data of the National Population Database with the National Public Service Portal, effectively combining online and in-person working methods.

At the same time, continue to review the functions, tasks and powers of agencies, units and localities in the spirit of Resolutions 18 and 19 of the 12th Central Committee to both streamline the apparatus and reduce staffing, and improve capacity and efficiency, management, and assign one job to only one agency and one person, take responsibility and assign the job to whoever does it best, avoid overlap, avoid duplication of tasks, reduce intermediaries, do a good job of determining job positions, pay attention to training and fostering to improve the quality of human resources...

The Prime Minister requested adequate investment, promoting the application of information technology, national digital transformation, building e-Government, towards digital Government, digital economy and digital society; perfecting the set of criteria for evaluating administrative reform suitable to the conditions and political system of Vietnam and referring to international experience for creative application, ensuring democratic, accurate, objective and fair evaluation.

The Prime Minister noted the need to mobilize contributions from society, people and businesses in implementing administrative reforms, taking people and businesses as the center, the subject, the goal and the driving force in the spirit of "of the people, by the people, for the people", all policies must be directed towards people and businesses and have mechanisms to encourage them to contribute and build frankly and sincerely.

Agencies need to be humble and receptive to listening to people and businesses in many forms, not "listen and then leave it there", "accept whatever content you can accept, clarify and explain whatever content you cannot accept".

Agencies need to coordinate closely, effectively, on schedule and ensure quality to resolve the work of agencies, units, localities, businesses and people, and solve emerging problems arising from practice; promote international cooperation, research, refer to good lessons, good experiences, effective methods, and mobilize international resources for administrative reform./.