Reforms key to stronger economy

Task forces had been set up at central to grassroots levels to usher in administrative reform to streamline systems and prevent a recession, said Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Chairman the Government Office.

Phuc said in an interview on the Government website, "It is important to create favourable conditions for the task forces to fulfil their responsibilities and provide them adequate human resources."

They should have modern equipment, particularly information technology, to review administrative procedures and detect and eliminate overlapping and complex ones.

He said Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung had issued a decision in January 2008 on streamlining public administrative procedures through 2010.

Known as Project 30, it aims to build a democratic, transparent, and efficient administrative system.

Phuc said that in the first of the project’s three phases, every ministry and all 63 provinces and cities in the country had established a task force for administrative reform and reported statistics relating to administrative procedures.

They listed more than 6,500 procedures, he said.

The task forces on administrative reforms had worked with localities and industries grappling with red tape to report back to the Prime Minister who would consider doing away with some lengthy procedures, he said.

While the key task last year of itemising the various administrative procedures had basically been finished, the focus had now shifted to amending a number of decrees, he said. The revisions would have an effect on laws and decrees on investment, construction, and property trading, among others, he said, adding those were some of the areas investors had had the most difficulty with. (VNS)