PHOTO: Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh chairs the meeting of the Government’s Steering Committee for Administrative Reform. VGP Photo

All 63 localities have completed the connection and data sharing between the national population database and the administrative procedure portals, issued 83.76 million chip-based ID cards, and verified 91.2 million units of information on the social security and population database as of October 10.

That was one of the outstanding performances reported by the Ministry of Internal Affairs at the sixth meeting of the Government’s Steering Committee for Administrative Reform on November 14.

Chairing the meeting, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, who is also head of the steering committee, said administrative reform holds an important meaning, contributing to improving the efficiency of the State apparatus, unclogging resources, supporting businesses to overcome difficulties, promoting growth, creating jobs, and ensuring livelihoods for workers.

Administrative reform has received special attention from the Party, State, National Assembly, and voters nationwide, especially at the 6th session of the ongoing 15th National Assembly, he said.

He affirmed that administrative reform has recorded many improvements thanks to efforts made by the Government, ministries, sectors, localities, and members of the steering committee.

Outstanding performance has been recorded in all six areas - institutional reform, administrative procedure reform, State administrative apparatus reform, civil service regime reform, public financing reform, and developing e-Government and digital government.

Firstly, according to the internal affairs ministry, as part of institutional reform, law building and enforcement are considered one of the top priorities. In the first 10 months of 2023, the Government organised eight thematic sessions on law making. Since early this year to October 6, 2023, ministries and sectors have submitted for approval or issued 247 legal documents.

Secondly, the Government and the Prime Minister continue to pay attention to administrative procedure reform. The Prime Minister established an administrative procedures reform working group responsible for urging ministries and localities to implement assigned tasks. In the third quarter of this year, the working group held two meetings on September 8, 2023, and October 16, 2023.

From January to October, 341 business regulations in 30 legal documents were reduced or simplified. Ministries have cut and simplified 437 administrative procedures related to citizens' papers, accounting for 40 per cent of the total administrative procedures with the participation of the ministries of public security, construction, science and technology, agriculture and rural development, and Việt Nam Social Security.

As of October 31, 21 out of 22 ministries and sectors and 61 out of 63 provinces and cities announced the reduction and simplification of 4,028 internal administrative procedures.

The State Bank of Việt Nam, the Government Inspectorate, ministries of transport, construction, labour, invalids and social affairs have made outstanding performance in administrative reform decentralisation, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

According to the Government Office, in October 2023, the rate of administrative procedure applications processed online reached 26.93 per cent of all dossiers, increasing by 16.15 per cent year-on-year. The rate among online applications handled at the local level rose by 27.77 per cent to 40.91 per cent.

PHOTO: PM Pham Minh Chinh called for participants to be focused on discussing difficulties, obstacles and propose specific and practical solutions to realize the administrative reform targets for 2023. VGP Photo

Third, on the reform of the State administrative apparatus, the Government issued a resolution on streamlining the apparatus and other documents on the arrangement of district and commune-level administrative units for the 2023-25 period.

Fourth, regarding civil service reform, all ministries and localities have completed the connection and data sharing with the national database on civil servants and public employees. Sixty-seven ministries and localities synchronised all data.

A total of over 2.2 million data of civil servants and public employees have been synchronised. The Ministry of Internal Affairs is one of three ministries completing the connection and data sharing with the national database portal.

Fifth, regarding public financing reform, the Government issued eight decrees while the Ministry of Finance issued 16 circulars in financial management - State budget, lifting obstacles and promoting production and business.

According to the finance ministry, more than VNĐ401.8 trillion of public investment was disbursed as of October 31, reaching 56.74 per cent of the PM’s assigned task.

Sixth, the 15th National Assembly approved the amended Law on Electronic Transactions while the Government issued a number of resolutions related to promoting and developing e-Government, digital government, and national digital transformation.

Thirty-six out of 63 localities nationwide established smart management centres. Forty out of 63 localities reduced and exempted online administrative procedure fees to encourage local people to submit online applications.

According to the Ministry of Public Security, as of October 10, the ministry issued over 83.76 million chip-based ID cards and verified over 379.3 million electronic identity accounts.

More than 12,500 medical facilities across the countries have accepted the chip-based ID cards for their check-up and treatment services covered by health insurance cards.

Besides outstanding performance, the PM pointed out certain shortcomings in the work, saying that they are mostly attributable to subjective causes.

He stressed that some officials, especially those holding top positions in some agencies and localities, are not fully aware of their responsibility in the work. Some ministries, sectors, and localities have not taken drastic actions. Mechanisms and policies remain contradictory and overlapping. The capacity of civil servants and public employees at certain places has yet to meet requirements, and discipline observance is not strict. Meanwhile, the coordination among agencies and units is not timely and effective enough, he added.

The PM emphasised the need to enhance officials’ sense of responsibility and activeness, take flexible and active steps in implementing administrative reform tasks, boost power decentralisation and resource allocation in tandem with inspection, supervision, and power control, and stringently enforce administrative discipline.

PHOTO: The meeting is carried out on a hybrid format, connecting participants from 63 Centrally-run cities and provinces. VGP Photo

He required members of the Steering Committee to uphold their leadership to fulfil administrative reform tasks for 2023, with a focus on the reform of institutions, administrative procedures, the state administrative apparatus, public affairs regime, public finance, and the building and development of an electronic Government and a digital Government.

He requested ministries, sectors, and localities to continue reviewing and reforming their work methodology, bring into play their leaders’ role to fruitfully perform administrative reform duties, and increase dialogue with people and businesses in order to grasp the situation and order the settlement of obstacles./.