Enhancing Effectiveness of Administrative Reforms

To improve the quality of administrative reform, maintain and raise the PAR Index in the long term, the Department of Home Affairs of Yen Bai province has actively advised and adopted many solutions to enhance the effectiveness of government operations at all levels, and administrative procedures are resolved promptly in the given process and time.

Yen Bai Provincial People's Committee honor units and individuals for their contributions to administrative reform and the improvement of the business environment

In 2023, the Satisfaction Index of Public Administrative Services (SIPAS) of Yen Bai province reached 87.73%, ranking 9th out of 63 provinces and cities (two places higher than in 2022). The Public Administration Reform Index (PAR Index) scored 88.86%, ranking 10th (four places higher than in 2022). These results have created a ripple effect and helped the province become a destination trusted by investors.

Mr. Nguyen Van Trong, Director of the Department of Home Affairs, said: To speed up administrative reform, the Department of Home Affairs has actively advised the Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial People's Committee to resolutely direct all levels and branches of authority to synchronously accelerate administrative reform in all six areas, focusing on: Perfecting and arranging the organizational apparatus, reducing deputy managers of administrative organizations and public service units; improving the quality of running the single-window mechanism; increasingly receiving and settling administrative procedures through partial and full online public services; transforming State-funded public service units to self-financing units; and applying information technology to operations of administrative agencies.

Administrative procedure reform has positively improved and produced encouraging results. Currently, Yen Bai has a total of 1,834 administrative procedures, including 1,465 provincial procedures, 262 district procedures and 107 communal procedures. Administrative procedures are performed at the Provincial Public Administration Service Center and district/commune public administration service units. All are made public on the National Public Service Portal, the Provincial Public Service Portal and offices of the Provincial Public Administration Service Center and the Public Administration Service Department at district and commune levels.

In addition, reforming administrative procedures alongside digital transformation is considered one of important keys to raising the PAR Index. Currently, the Provincial Public Administration Service Center and the district/ and commune public administration service agencies are operating effectively, and administrative procedures are resolved in the given process and time, with the motto of “Taking public and business satisfaction as a measure of the effectiveness of governmental operations at all levels, the leadership and administration capacity of agency and local leaders.” The province streamlines and simplifies stages of solving administrative procedures, with emphasis on “reforming the settlement of administrative records” and special focus on simplifying administrative procedures to reduce procedures, time, costs and risks for businesses, particularly in land, investment, construction, tax and customs fields, while further reusing previously resolved administrative procedures to settle new ones.

To achieve better results, in the coming time, the Department of Home Affairs will continue to effectively reform administrative procedures, especially in investment, land, and construction fields. The department will accelerate digital transformation on all three pillars: Digital government, digital economy and digital society. It will focus on deploying digital transformation platforms, prioritizing utilities for quicker administrative procedure settlement, providing online public services and utilities for digital citizen development, and enriching population data. The department will adopt solutions to improve the PAR Index and the SIPAS Index to improve the Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI), provide 100% of qualified full-process public services on the Yen Bai Provincial Public Service Portal and the National Public Service Portal to facilitate people and businesses to deal with administrative procedures more quickly and more economically.

By Nguyen Dung, Vietnam Business Forum