Substantive and effective administrative reform

Việt Nam•27/10/2024

In recent years, Quang Ninh has continued to surpass other provinces and cities nationwide to maintain its leading position in the Satisfaction Index on Administrative Services (SIPAS), the Public Administration Reform Index (PAR Index), and many other indicators. This is one of the most significant achievements, further affirming the increasing trust and satisfaction of the people, the business community, and investors, reflecting the effectiveness of state administration, management, and public service delivery by all levels of provincial government.

The leaders of Quang Ninh province received the Cup and Certificate for leading the PCI ranking in 2023.

Quang Ninh province has always considered administrative reform as the responsibility of the entire political system, a central, ongoing, and continuous task, and the primary responsibility of the heads of agencies, units, and localities. All provincial authorities recognize that the primary beneficiaries of administrative reform are the people and businesses. Therefore, the consistent guiding principle is to always use the satisfaction of the people and organizations as the measure of the effectiveness of administrative reform, with the motto that administrative reform must be continuous, persistent, decisive, and focused.

From that perspective, over the past decade, Quang Ninh has persistently promoted administrative reform, improved the investment and business environment, and enhanced competitiveness with many strong policies. In particular, Quang Ninh was the first province to include the goal of "Annually maintaining a top position in the PCI, PAR Index, SIPAS, and PAPI indices" in the Resolution of the Provincial Party Congress for the 2020-2025 term, concretized by thematic resolution No. 05 in 2021; the Provincial People's Council issued three resolutions on mechanisms and policies to support businesses and promote administrative reform; and the Provincial People's Committee issued over 30 decisions, plans, action programs, and over 570 notices and directives.

Simultaneously, the province has boldly piloted new governance models suitable to local realities to serve the people and businesses; promoted the development of e-government, applied information technology, and gradually achieved comprehensive digital transformation; expanded connectivity and information exchange, and strengthened regular interaction between all levels of government and the people and businesses.

According to Mr. Le Van Sang, Chairman of the Ha Long City Investment and Startup Club, in recent years, the business community has greatly benefited from the province's reforms, thereby creating momentum for business development. The business community has received support and assistance in resolving administrative procedures, improving corporate governance capacity, and accessing legal consulting services. Recently, the establishment of the Innovation and Digital Transformation Startup Center has been of great significance to the business community in general, and startups in particular. This is one of the places where businesses, especially young startups, have the necessary infrastructure and facilities to participate in creating and developing their ideas. This contributes to achieving the province's goals in implementing the central government's guidelines on private sector economic development.

Officials at the Provincial Public Administrative Service Center guide and assist citizens and businesses in resolving administrative procedures. Photo: Song Ha.

In particular, recognizing that human resources are the key factor determining the success of administrative reform, Quang Ninh province always focuses on improving the quality of staff handling administrative procedures at Public Administrative Service Centers and modern reception and results delivery departments at the commune and ward levels throughout the province. Departments, agencies, and localities assign staff to handle administrative procedures, primarily young, dynamic, enthusiastic, capable, professionally qualified, experienced, and possessing good moral character and communication skills to explain the administrative procedure process to citizens. Alongside this, the province strengthens inspection and supervision of public services, especially by sending teams to conduct surprise inspections at Public Administrative Service Centers at all levels and modern reception and results delivery departments at the commune and ward levels. Over the three years (2021-2023), more than 16,100 civil servants and public employees participated in training courses with a total budget of 31 billion VND to strengthen training and professional development, especially in administrative skills, public service ethics, professionalism, responsibility, dynamism, honesty, discipline, exemplary conduct, and dedication to serving the people and society in handling work. According to the survey results for the first nine months of 2024, 99.6% of the feedback from citizens and businesses at public administrative centers indicated that the processing time for administrative procedures was fast, the staff were courteous and friendly, and the quality of service was good.

To promote the provision of online information and public services by state agencies on the internet, departments, sectors, and localities regularly review relevant documents to update, supplement, and adjust administrative procedures for providing full-process and partial online public services. To date, the entire province has synchronized 1,263 online public services (including: 568 partial online public services and 695 full-process online public services) onto the National Public Service Portal, reaching 77.4%. Among these, several departments and agencies have implemented 100% of their administrative procedures at the Provincial Public Service Center, including: the Economic Zone Management Board, the Department of Industry and Trade, the Department of Tourism, the Department of Planning and Investment, the Department of Science and Technology, the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, the Department of Information and Communications, the Department of Culture and Sports, and the Department of Construction. Currently, the rate of processing work documents at all three levels in Quang Ninh province is over 90%, including: over 85% at the commune level, over 90% at the district level, and over 95% at the provincial level. The province also maintains good interoperability and connection between the e-government system and the shared databases of central ministries and agencies…

With strong and groundbreaking changes in administrative reform, Quang Ninh has consistently achieved remarkable results in the PAR Index, SIPAS, PCI, and PGI for many years. Particularly in 2023, the province continued to lead the nation, marking its 7th consecutive year leading the PCI Index, its 6th consecutive year leading the PAR Index, its 5th consecutive year leading the SIPAS Index, and its 11th consecutive year in the top 5 provinces and centrally-governed cities with the best economic governance quality in the country. These indices are highly scientific measures, reflecting the objective voice of the people and the business community regarding the quality of administrative reform and the improvement of the investment and business environment by the province's political system, state management agencies, and the entire team of officials and civil servants. This is also evidenced by the province's socio-economic development results, with GRDP growth rates exceeding double digits for 9 consecutive years. In 2023, the per capita GRDP reached over US$9,500, the highest in the North and second highest nationwide; total state budget revenue, especially domestic revenue, consistently ranked among the top in the country... These achievements on the reform journey have built Quang Ninh's brand as "A safe, convenient, transparent, attractive, and successful investment destination."

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