On the morning of February 13, the National Assembly discussed two draft laws: the Law on Government Organization (amended), the Law on Organization of Local Government (amended) and the draft Resolution of the National Assembly regulating the handling of a number of issues related to the reorganization of the state apparatus.

At the Hanoi delegation, General Secretary To Lam, in his speech, clearly stated the policy of streamlining the apparatus, which was agreed upon and supported by the people, agencies, and the National Assembly, and was quickly implemented. This is a very correct policy, not only to "save money" but most importantly to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and efficiency of the state apparatus, leading to the development of the country.

According to the General Secretary, "if it is not ripe, with many different moods and opinions, it is not certain that it can be implemented, because when there is disagreement and lack of unity, it is very difficult to implement." However, in reality, the people are very sympathetic.

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General Secretary To Lam speaks at the group. Photo: Pham Thang

The General Secretary emphasized that in streamlining the apparatus, it is necessary to correctly identify functions and tasks, determine the model of the apparatus organization, the system of legal regulations and arrange officials. Accordingly, the basic model of the apparatus organization arrangement is agreed upon from the Central to the local level, the National Assembly and the Government. And once agreed, arrange officials to improve effectiveness, efficiency and enforce the law in accordance with regulations.

According to the General Secretary, summarizing Resolution 18 is to see what has been done, but there is still much that has not been done.

"When making the arrangement, some comrades said that they would do it after the congress, in the new term, and reform would be done, but doing it now would cause a lot of conflict. Then the rearrangement would depend on who is in this ministry or that ministry. At that time, I said that it would be even more impossible to do it after the congress, because right after the congress, there would be elections and voting, who could do it differently and it would be very difficult. Therefore, this is our golden opportunity," the General Secretary affirmed.

The General Secretary also shared about the country's position in the international arena and affirmed that the achievements of innovation are very great but looking at other countries, they are "too slow". He cited countries in the region such as Singapore, Thailand, and South Korea, which had difficulties in the last century but are now very developed. Or China is similar to Vietnam, but after 40 years of reform and opening up, the average income per capita is more than 3 times that of Vietnam.

In fact, the risk of falling behind has been recognized by the Party since the 6th Congress and is still present, even more complicated now because the world has made new developments. According to the General Secretary, this is only the first step of arrangement, the next step is the whole process.

Assessing the government apparatus, the General Secretary cited Dong Anh district (Hanoi) with a budget revenue of nearly 30,000 billion VND, Hoan Kiem district with a budget revenue of 22,000 billion VND, this figure is equal to the budget revenue of several provinces, even more than 20 times that of a province.

The General Secretary questioned why a district with such land and population size can do it, but a province cannot.

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The General Secretary speaks at the group. Photo: Pham Thang

Without land and resources, if the district or county encourages production and business, the locality cannot do it. "It must bring books to study, must recalculate, must learn from experience..."

The General Secretary affirmed that only with growth can we have enough potential to protect the country and the Fatherland, have enough conditions to implement the policies of the Party and State, achieve goals, and avoid the risk of falling behind.

According to the General Secretary, there are many solutions to growth, but an effective and efficient operating apparatus is a very important requirement. The apparatus must serve the development of society and must mobilize the people to participate responsibly. If this can be done, the whole society must change.

Regarding the model of a 3-level or 4-level government, the General Secretary said that further research and evaluation is needed, but 80% of countries have a 3-level government. Recently, the pilot police force abandoned the district level because the regular police force had moved to the commune level. And when everything related to the people was done directly at the commune level, they were very happy. At that time, from household registration, car and motorbike registration, to even investigating cases, the commune police could handle everything, without having to wait for the district or province.

The General Secretary also informed that there are opinions stating that China has a large area and a large population but has few provinces and cities, while Vietnam has a smaller area and a smaller population but has 63 provinces and cities. "We said that this also needs to be studied. In reality, some provinces have developed very well after being separated, but some provinces say they have run out of land and space, and only consider regional linkages, so there are regional councils and regional linkages...", the General Secretary said.

President: The new apparatus must be better than the old one when it is streamlined.

President: The new apparatus must be better than the old one when it is streamlined.

President Luong Cuong stated that the arrangement and streamlining of the apparatus must be effective and efficient; "reorganizing, whatever we do, the new apparatus must be better than the old one."
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