Solutions to enhance the efficiency of provision and uses of online public services in Vietnam

Solutions to enhance the efficiency of provision and uses of online public services in Vietnam (Photo from Internet)

Solutions to enhance the efficiency of provision and uses of online public services in Vietnam

On August 31, 2024, Prime Minister of the Government of Vietnam Pham Minh Chinh, Chair of the National Committee on Digital Transformation, chaired a specialized conference on “Improving the Efficiency of Online Public Service Provision and Usage.”

According to Notification 434/TB-VPCP dated September 25, 2024, the Prime Minister of the Government of Vietnam requires ministers, heads of sectors, and chairpersons of People's Committees at various levels to strongly implement with the aggressive spirit, promoting the “1 Goal”, “2 Pillars”, “3 Breakthroughs”, “4 No's”, “5 Enhancements and Strengthenings”; focusing on deploying the following key tasks and solutions:

(1) Ministries, central authorities, and local authorities, especially leaders, must proactively, energetically engage, uphold their responsibility, and exemplify in directing and organizing the tasks assigned by the Government of Vietnam and the Prime Minister of the Government of Vietnam to ensure the timely and quality implementation; promptly address the highlighted limitations, inadequacies, and causes; use the results of administrative procedures and the provision of online public services as one of the criteria for assessing the trustworthiness of leaders of ministries, central authorities, and local authorities during the term. Focus on building, refining institutions, mechanisms, and policies, wherein reviewing, detecting, and promptly amending, supplementing the inadequacies, conflicts in the system of regulations, normative documents, and the difficulties, obstacles in implementation, with the spirit that whatever practical requirements arise and demands are ripe and clear must be amended, supplemented, institutionalized into regulations, creating a legal framework for implementation, ensuring the policy must be open, the infrastructure must be smooth, and governance must be intelligent.

(2) Reduce, simplify to the maximum, and strictly control the emergence of administrative procedures, business regulations; decisively eliminate the request-giving mechanism; create an open, transparent, and clean environment so that officials do not commit violations; actively combat corruption, negativity, while contributing to the construction of a favorable legal environment that encourages officials to dare to think, dare to do, dare to innovate, and be creative. Strongly reduce, simplify 50% of internal administrative procedures and compliance costs of internal administrative procedures; urgently decentralize and delegate authority to localities to implement administrative procedures in a way where the level that performs best is assigned, notably the grassroots level closest to the people. Robustly shift to handling work files in the electronic environment, in which the Ministry of Information and Communications promptly presents the Government of Vietnam to fully issue the decrees guiding the implementation of the Law on Electronic Transactions in September 2024.

(3) Focus on improving the quality of online public services: (i) Review, reassess, and innovate the provision of online public services to ensure meeting the requirements for level, convenience, simplicity, user-friendliness, and greening of public services, completing before December 15, 2024; (ii) Strongly restructure processes, design, and provide online public services based on maximum reduction and simplification of administrative procedures, data reuse, electronic interconnection, ensuring that people only provide information, paperwork once to state agencies; (iii) Promptly research, assess, and expand the provision of online public services for public utility services, public service sectors to complete the ecosystem in the electronic environment for citizens and businesses, reporting to the Prime Minister of the Government of Vietnam before December 15, 2024; (iv) Continuously innovate and enhance the quality of operations of public administrative service centers and one-stop shop units at all levels, digitize, provide non-geographical administrative public services to support citizens and businesses in digital transformation, especially vulnerable groups.

(4) Strongly digitize files, administrative procedure results; build, complete, and operate national databases, specialized databases; enhance connectivity, sharing, and reuse of data.

(5) Continue to focus on investing in developing the information technology infrastructure system to meet the requirements for national digital transformation comprehensively and effectively, including: (i) The Ministry of Public Security is responsible for leading, in cooperation with ministries, central authorities, and relevant agencies to focus on building the national data center according to Resolution 175/NQ-CP of 2023 from the Government of Vietnam; (ii) Ministries, central authorities, and local authorities continuously upgrade and complete the national public service portal, the information system for administrative procedure resolution at the ministry and provincial levels to fully meet the requirements of digital transformation.

(6) Conduct a comprehensive review and assess the situation of ensuring cybersecurity and information security for information systems under the administration following the guidance of the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of National Defense, and the Ministry of Information and Communications.

(7) Strongly promote the emulation movement for digital transformation implementation, especially in providing and using online public services in agencies, units, and officials and public employees; promptly motivate, reward good initiatives, new methods, and typical exemplary figures. Conduct assessments of officials and public employees following regulations, including based on the results of digital transformation implementation, particularly in performing administrative procedures and providing online public services.

(8) Innovate and enhance the effectiveness of propagating, guiding, and supporting the implementation of online public services for citizens and businesses. The Ministry of Information and Communications is urgently completing and presenting for issuance the Scheme “Propagating, Disseminating the Efficient Provision and Usage of Online Public Services by 2025, with Orientation to 2030” in October 2024.

(9) The Ministry of Information and Communications of Vietnam is assigned to lead, in cooperation with the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the Ministry of Finance, and the Office of the Government of Vietnam, to aggregate recommendations and proposals of ministries, central authorities, and local authorities at the Conference, especially from the People's Committee of Da Nang City to study, support, handle according to their authority or propose solutions to the competent authorities, promptly solve difficulties, obstacles, and enhance the substantial and effective quality of online public service provision and report to the National Committee on Digital Transformation in the year-end session of 2024.

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