Experience in effective public governance and digitalization from a Nordic country

Norwegian Ambassador to Vietnam Hilde Solbakken and Norwegian public administration expert Halvor Walla gave an interview to The Gioi and Viet Nam Newspaper on the sidelines of the discussion “Effective leadership and public administration, promoting innovation and digital transformation: Experience from Northern Europe and Vietnam” on the afternoon of March 18.

Norwegian Ambassador to Vietnam Hilde Solbakken gives an interview to The Gioi va Viet Nam Newspaper. (Photo: Minh Thu)

Trust from digital governance

Norwegian Ambassador to Vietnam Hilde Solbakken affirmed that countries now need to come up with ways to ensure local leaders can make good use of institutions and technology to meet people's needs.

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“ The government sets strict regulations for local authorities on digital systems, data and public services. However, the implementation is decided by the local authorities, flexible based on the common technology and organizational framework. Thanks to that, no matter where people live, they still receive public services of equivalent quality from the local authorities there,” Ambassador Solbakken pointed out.

Norway has long been known for its sustainable welfare system and inclusive governance model, consistently ranking high in global rankings of governance capacity and sustainable competitiveness. Ambassador Solbakken stressed that the core element of public administration is data collection and scientific planning. For example, in Norway, if statistics show that 70% of the population in an area is over 60 years old, the local government will prioritize developing health services and nursing homes instead of investing in kindergartens.

According to Ambassador Solbakken, in order to build an effective governance system, Norway has focused on balancing the roles of central and local governments, while encouraging citizen participation. In particular, a highlight of this strategy is the application of digitalization, helping public services in the Nordic country to be provided quickly, cost-effectively and easily accessible.

It is these high-quality services that help build trust between the people and the government, contributing to sustainable public governance.

Norwegian public administration expert Halvor Walla speaks at the seminar. (Source: Norwegian Embassy in Vietnam)

The key to success

In addition, Mr. Halvor Walla, a Norwegian public administration expert, also shared with The World and Vietnam Newspaper about the factors that determine success in public administration and national development.

“Innovation is critical to improving governance and building a productive and efficient public sector,” said Mr. Walla, who believes “the key to innovation is transparency and objective data.”

For countries that are in the process of improving the quality of public management, objective data and confidentiality are really a big challenge. To ensure that, Mr. Halvor Walla affirmed, Norway is using independent auditors to control and verify the reported data. Accordingly, people can rest assured to use the same classification and data coding system with others, with strictly audited accuracy and high reliability.

At the seminar “Effective leadership and public administration, promoting innovation and digital transformation: Experiences from Northern Europe and Vietnam” on the afternoon of March 18, expert Halvor Walla emphasized the role of improving the quality of data collection and statistics.

According to him, data plays an important role in improving the public sector, helping the central government monitor the situation and cities evaluate their performance compared to the whole country. If a locality performs well, the Nordic country's government will exchange, learn and apply those effective strategies elsewhere. This is an important mechanism to achieve high performance in public administration in the country.

Sharing about solutions to the barriers of citizens, especially vulnerable groups in society, Mr. Halvor Walla said that Norway still maintains the option of direct support for groups that have difficulty accessing technology, such as the elderly or the disabled. It can be said that in Norway, public services are not completely digitized, there are always support offices and focus on accessibility. This country also designs suitable technology solutions for the blind and visually impaired, and integrates them with other support tools.