9:29:33 AM | 26/10/2018
Hung Yen province is aggressively accelerating administrative procedure reform, enhancing the capacity and responsibility of public employees and gradually building a modern administration to improve the business environment. Mr Nguyen Van Phong, Chairman of Hung Yen Provincial People’s Committee, told the Vietnam Business Forum Magazine about this issue. Ngo Khuyen reports.
2018 is the second year Hung Yen province is implementing the self-balancing budget mechanism and sending a part to the central budget, an important milestone in the province’s development. What do you think about this landmark milestone? What solutions will the province adopt to sustain this budgetary growth?
Over the past years, the province’s budget revenues and expenditures have always been balanced, especially from 2017 when the province was requested to self-balance its budget revenue and send a part to the central budget. To fulfil and exceed the assigned revenue, in 2017 and 2018, the Provincial People’s Committee has issued many directive documents to enhance budgetary collection and spending management, such as Directive 19/CT-CTUBND dated December 8, 2016 of the Chairman of the Provincial People’s Committee on strengthening petroleum product trading management in the province; Directive 18-CT/TU dated March 22, 1977 of the Standing Committee of the Provincial People’s Committee on strengthening State budget revenue and expenditure management in the province; Directive 08/CT-UBND dated June 27, 2017 of the Provincial People’s Committee on instructions on fulfilment of financial - fiscal tasks in 2017; and Directive 06/CT-UBND dated May 11, 2018 on enhancing tax debt management and late tax collection in Hung Yen province. Budget collection performance has grown well and exceeded the plans in 2017 and 2018. Specifically, the value reached VND12,015 billion in 2017, equal to 112.8 per cent of the full-year plan, up 25 per cent that of 2016 and 132 times that of the year of provincial reestablishment. The collected budget was estimated at VND8,331 billion in the first nine months of 2018, fulfilling 69.4 per cent of the yearly plan. However, collecting budget revenues encountered numerous hardships, especially in the foreign-invested sector and the non-state sector. Tax debt management is still in difficulty.
To sustain budget revenue sources, in the coming time, the province will focus on the following measures: Stepping up administrative procedure reform under the one-place single-window mechanism, enhancing tax inspection under risk management approach; further managing and combating tax losses, frauds and tax arrears, especially those relating to land and natural resources, losses from trade fraud and tax fraud; strictly handling taxpayers deliberating delaying or rejecting tax settlement; directing all levels, branches and localities to accelerate land-use rights auctions; and assessing and forecasting revenue sources, focusing on causes of revenue growth or decline to take timely measures.
Authorities need mechanisms and policies to create a transparent and open legal corridor; promptly solve difficulties and problems for business organisations and individuals; increasingly inspect, supervise and urge organisations and individuals to fulfil their tax obligations; have inspirational commendations for good taxpayers; and take measures to stringently tackle organisations and individuals that commit acts of tax evasion or tax fraud. For their part, taxpayers are obliged to raise their sense of responsibility in fulfilling tax obligations to the State.
In recent years, the provincial government has worked hard to improve the Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI). Could you tell us about this?
To fulfil governmental policies on building a clean and strong public administration, creating an enabling and strong business and investment environment, the Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial People’s Committee of Hung Yen requested all levels and sectors to provide favourable conditions for investors to learn about the investment climate and carry out their investment projects.
Building a friendly, open and transparent business and investment environment is defined as a political task of all tiers of government, sectors and localities and the success of enterprises is the success of the province, thus creating business confidence in the province.
The province has regularly trained and fostered theories, morale, lifestyle and communication manners for public employees; intensified administrative inspection and control, strictly treated public employees who are obnoxious, bureaucratic or disrespectful to organisations and citizens in the course of carrying out administrative procedures; and raised the sense of responsibility among unit heads in subordinate management.
The Provincial People’s Committee’s Plan 71/KH-UBND on the province’s PCI improvement in 2018 dated June 14 inspired all departments and branches and assigned the accountability of unit heads. Its message, objectives and tasks are clear and specific. How will the province force grassroots authorities to adhere to the plan?
The lack of correspondence between provincial and grassroots authorities is not popular but it still exists in some officials and agencies. To tackle this reality, the provincial government has to act more drastically with more inspection, supervision, commendation and punishment. Indeed, where there are brave and dedicated lead officials, there is no disconnect between superior and inferior agencies.
The province needs to focus on enhancing capacity building, discipline, morality, sense of law enforcement and accountability of agency heads and responsibility of public employees. It seriously handles acts of harassment and bureaucracy; resolutely removes officials and employees committing acts of obstructing, seeking personal profits and disrupting enterprises and people. At the same time, it further accelerates administrative reform, especially administrative procedures; concentrates on building and improving the investment and business environment, boosting production development and sustainable economic growth; and improves its PCI and encourages innovation and start-ups.
In the coming time, Hung Yen is determined to build a contingent of ethical and exemplary civil servants to better serve people and enterprises; further supervise, inspect, commend and discipline public employees in a timely manner; provide an enabling space for innovation and personnel assessment; and study formulation and quantification of work results of public employees, which serve as a basis for assessing assigned tasks.
Following policies on shaping an enabling government for better service of citizens and businesses, provincial leaders have directed firm, specific commitments to strongly support and facilitate investors and businesses such as:
- Telling State employees of public morality and administrative reforms; preventing bureaucracy, corruption and harassment.
- Urging provincial departments and local authorities to strictly carry out and facilitate enterprises, receive and return documents relating to land, construction, environment, tax, export and import, and business registration.
- Organising three business - government dialogues a year to understand and solve hardships against businesses.
- Establishing and publicising telephone hotlines, online answers and questions on the province’s websites, receiving feedback, guidance and answers for enterprises.
- Enlarging the one-place single-window mechanism at administrative agencies; reviewing and unifying the focal point for receiving and processing documents; guiding and resolving administrative procedures on the principle of one-time notification in writing to enterprises and investors.
- Reviewing sector, domain and product planning; revising inappropriate plans.
- Building, deploying and developing business support activities by linking industries and value chains; connecting large enterprises, foreign investment enterprises with small and medium enterprises in the province.
- Speeding up the arrangement, equitisation, divestment of enterprises that the State does not need to hold interests.
- Stepping up support for small and medium enterprises, startup enterprises and social enterprises by delivering training, consultancy, information and market services; supporting and accessing the application of achievements of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
- Performing strict inspections as per the Prime Minister’s directions (no more than once a year); combining cross-sector inspections into one, except for cases of inspection or extraordinary inspection when there are clear signs of law violation.
- No criminalising economic and civil relations.
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