Hanoi (VNA) – The 2020 Provincial Governance andPublic Administration Performance Index - PAPI Report on Vietnam was released onApril 14, reflecting an incremental improvement in national governance andpublic administration performance during the 2016-2021 government term.

Since 2018, PAPI has been co-funded by the Department ofForeign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) of Australia, the Embassy of Ireland and UnitedNations Development Programme (UNDP) in Vietnam.

The report, which assessed citizen experiences with nationaland local government performance in governance, public administration, and publicservice delivery, showed that the Control of Corruption in the Public Sectordimension has improved significantly each year since 2016.

 The dimension onVertical Accountability Towards Citizens also steadily improved during the2016-2021 term, mainly because an increasing number of citizens have contactedlocal officials, in particular village heads and People’s Council delegates.

Dimensions posting declines included Participation at LocalLevels and Public Administrative Procedures.

“New features of the 2020 PAPI Report include insightfulfindings on the performance of local governments across two terms (2011-2016and 2016-2021); experience of internal migrants with accessing services inreceiving provinces; and voter perception of women in leadership roles,” UNDP ResidentRepresentative in Vietnam Caitlin Wiesen said in her opening remark at the reportlaunch.

“As the Government embarks on a new term, PAPI provides richand deep datasets on citizens’ perception of local government achievement ineach of the 63 provinces and important metrics to review and further improvetheir performance across eight key dimensions of governance,” she noted.

Analysis in the 2020 PAPI Report shows that citizenengagement and anti-corruption efforts have a positive correlation with Vietnam’sability to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Australian Ambassador to Vietnam Robyn Mudie, acknowledged animprovement in provincial governance and public administration performance,which may have contributed to Vietnam’s successful response to the COVID-19pandemic.

Findings from the 2020 PAPI Report show that there is acorrelation between good governance and effective pandemic responses, sheadded.

Nguyen Huu Dung, Vice President of the Central Committee ofthe Vietnam Fatherland Front said he hope that PAPI will continue to serve as areliable policy monitoring tool that helps promote government accountabilityand reforms, thereby furthering modern governance.

Over 14,700 citizens were interviewed for the 2020 PAPIReport. This is the largest number of citizens to participate since the surveywas first conducted nationwide in 2011. For the first time, the survey alsogathered responses from citizens with temporary residence registration status.Nearly 300 migrants were surveyed in six centrally governed municipalities andprovinces (Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Bac Ninh, Da Nang, Dong Nai and BinhDuong)./.