Applying for business registration at the Hanoi Department of Planning and Investment (Source: VNA)The idea is generally well-received by the public, however,experts and people in the know caution that further study is needed, otherwisesuch reforms could result in counter-productive disarray rather than achievingtheir ambitious goal.
Specifically, local departments of planning andinvestment would merge into the departments of finance to form departments ofplanning and finance. Provincial departments of transport would merge with thedepartments of construction, or, in Hanoi and HCM City, with the municipaldepartments of planning and architecture, to form a department of transport,construction, and urban development.
In addition, the draft law allows localities to decide whether toset up specialised departments. The Department of Science and Technology isoptional and its functions can be folded into the Department of Education andTraining.
The Department of Information and Communications, which providescounsel for provincial People’s Committee on management of media and ITmatters, is also optional for provinces with sparse populations; its duties canbe carried out by the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
Department of Tourism will only be set up in places with arecognised natural or cultural heritage and with tourism sector contributingover 10 percent for five consecutive years to its Regional Gross DomesticProducts (RGDP).
In the draft, MoHA also limited the number ofdirectors and officials in provincial departments and lower level offices.
Experts say the proposal is likely to meet withstrong resistance, especially from those departments that would be merged,however the efficiency of State management must be the overriding goal.According to the MoHA survey, 19 of 63 provinces and municipalities in thecountry are still not completely on board with the new draft.
The Hanoi People’s Committee argued that thecapital city is a vast area, with a heavy workload, while State managementcompetence remains at a “developing” level. Therefore, consideration is advisedand implementation must be conducted in phases, preventing a sudden deluge ofwork.
Chairman of the HCM City People’s CommitteeNguyen Thanh Phong and other heads of related agencies are also against theidea of "super-departments", saying the increased workload of asprawling metropolis combined with staff cuts would create severe bureaucraticbottlenecks.
According to Thang Van Phuc, former DeputyMinister of Home Affairs, the proposed merging of provincial departments is anabsolute necessity. He also said the proposal is not actually new, having beenfloated nearly 20 years ago at a Party Plenary in 1999.
“However, the idea never came to be realised dueto a lack of determination. This led to the current state of administrationwhere overlapping jurisdictions and inefficiency are rife,” Phuc said.
He said developed nations only have 12 to 15ministries, while Vietnam has 22 ministries and ministry-level agencies, but“service delivery to the public is certainly not on a par,” in addition towastefulness.
Responding to the concern that mergers mightcause a sudden and possibly crippling influx of work for State administrations,Phúc said the concern stems from "a controlling mind-set" - the Statetries to be all and everything, spreading themselves too thin. "If localdepartments focus on development of policies and carrying out inspectionduties, overload will not happen," he said.
Pham Sy Liem, Vice Chairman of the VietnamConstruction General Association, while favouring the idea maintained that itwould have far-reaching impacts. "It’s best to pilot it in a number ofprovinces first before implementing it nationwide," he said.
“We’ve tried merging and separation like thisseveral times already, and a slew of problems and loss and confusion resultedeach time. It took quite some time before things settled back to normal,” Liemsaid.-VNA
VNA
