The mark of reform and innovation

Officials at the Hoang Son Commune Public Administrative Service Center guide citizens through administrative procedures. Photo: Minh Khoi

To determine the success or failure of the reform process, Thanh Hoa province has frankly identified the "bottlenecks" that need to be addressed promptly, namely: the PAR INDER, SIPAS, PCI, and PAPI indices are always unstable and often rank among the lowest in the country; the adherence to discipline and order in the performance of official duties by a portion of cadres, civil servants, and public employees is sometimes not high in some places; and the situation of delays in resolving administrative procedures has not yet been resolved... To gradually eliminate these "dark aspects" in administrative reform, many resolutions, decisions, programs, and major plans on promoting administrative reform have been issued by the Provincial Party Committee, the Provincial People's Council, the Provincial People's Committee, and the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, in accordance with the new development stage.

In particular, closely following the overall State administrative reform program for the period 2021-2030, the Provincial People's Committee has issued an administrative reform plan for the period 2021-2025 and annual administrative reform plans to update and supplement new, feasible tasks and solutions. These focus on solutions to accelerate administrative procedure reform; improve the efficiency of public service delivery and utilization; tighten administrative discipline and order; promote decentralization of management in various fields; reorganize the state agency apparatus; and improve the investment and business environment...

The spirit of reform and innovation is only truly effective when it becomes a unified action from the provincial to the commune level and deeply ingrained in the awareness of every official and employee. Based on the plans, programs, projects, and major goals set by the province, the heads of departments and agencies, the chairmen of the former district-level People's Committees, and the commune-level People's Committees always emphasize their role and responsibility in directing the implementation of administrative reform in the direction of "Clear responsibilities, clear tasks, clear accountability, clear procedures, clear completion time, and clear effectiveness."

The atmosphere of innovation, coupled with the determination and decisive leadership from the provincial to the grassroots level, has helped Thanh Hoa set new records in the rankings of administrative reform indicators. In the 2021-2025 period, Thanh Hoa made a remarkable mark with impressive results: ranking 3rd nationwide in the PAPI Index, 5th in the SIPAS Index, 10th in the PAR Index, and 21st in the PCI Index. After more than 10 years of officially participating in the administrative reform index sets, the 2021-2025 period can be considered Thanh Hoa's most successful, as it has for the first time risen to the top of the country in many indicators. This achievement reflects the extraordinary efforts and the highest political determination of Thanh Hoa in consistently pursuing the goal of serving the people and businesses.

With a spirit of continuous and consistent reform, many specific goals and targets have been achieved at a high level. Over the past five years, 100% of central government legal documents have been concretized and implemented promptly; 100% of provincial legal documents have been reviewed, amended, supplemented, and replaced in accordance with central government regulations, meeting the province's socio -economic development requirements. Several mechanisms and policies on incentives, support, and investment attraction have been supplemented and perfected in a timely manner. Annually, the province includes in its plan and requires a review and reduction of at least 20% of administrative procedure compliance costs, focusing on key areas such as land, construction, agriculture, transportation, health, education, and training... As a result, from 2021 to 2024, 71 procedures were reviewed. The total cost of complying with administrative procedures before the review was VND 78.762 billion/year; the total cost of complying with administrative procedures after the review was VND 28.707 billion/year. The cost savings after simplification were VND 50.054 billion/year; the percentage of cost savings after simplification was 63.55% (exceeding the target reduction of 43.55%). In 2025, Thanh Hoa will continue to review and simplify 20 administrative procedures. Many cumbersome, overlapping procedures with unnecessary or unreasonable required documents have been reduced, creating favorable conditions for organizations and citizens.

Thanh Hoa is one of the first localities to issue Resolution No. 06-NQ/TU on "Digital Transformation of Thanh Hoa Province by 2025, with a vision to 2030". Currently, digital transformation is clearly evident in all fields and plays a "key" role in socio-economic development. Telecommunications infrastructure has been expanded through investment by businesses; information technology infrastructure and equipment in agencies and units continue to be invested in synchronously and modernly from the provincial to the commune level. The province's integrated data sharing and connection hub currently connects 11 intra-provincial information systems and 15 services connecting information systems outside the province. The province's Open Data Portal currently provides 60 open data sets in 16 fields to serve citizens and businesses for searching, exploiting, and using. In Thanh Hoa, 100% of businesses and organizations have used electronic invoices and implemented electronic tax collection on mobile devices. 100% of public hospitals have implemented cashless payment for medical services; 100% of educational institutions have promoted the application of information technology in teaching and collecting contributions.

The new progress and impressive achievements in administrative reform that Thanh Hoa has attained during the 2021-2025 period are very encouraging. With a determination to surpass itself, Thanh Hoa will not allow administrative reform activities to slow down, but will strive to overcome all difficulties and challenges to create new and higher values. Therefore, administrative reform continues to be selected as one of the four breakthroughs for the 2025-2030 term. This is the third consecutive term that the Provincial Party Committee has chosen administrative reform as a breakthrough to implement, aiming to create even more significant breakthroughs in the new term.

Minh Khoi

Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/dau-an-cai-cach-va-doi-moi-260140.htm