Minister of Home Affairs Pham Thi Thanh Tra reports on the results of implementing administrative reform tasks - Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac

At the first meeting of the Government's Steering Committee on science, technology, innovation, digital transformation and Project 06 held on the morning of March 18, Minister Pham Thi Thanh Tra presented a general assessment of the results of administrative reform implementation in 2024 as well as the first quarter of 2025. Administrative reform has achieved many new advances and recorded a number of significant breakthroughs.

Accordingly, regarding institutional reform, the Government and the Prime Minister pay special attention to innovating thinking in law-making, promoting the creative and supportive functions in addition to the management functions of the law and promoting decentralization and delegation of power.

Regarding organizational reform, Minister Pham Thi Thanh Tra assessed that this is truly a revolution in the entire political system, achieving very positive results, creating a solid foundation for further development.

There are currently 17 ministries and ministerial-level agencies, of which 5 ministries and 3 government agencies have been reduced. At the same time, the internal organization of ministries and ministerial-level agencies has been significantly streamlined. Specifically, 13/13 general departments and equivalents have been reduced, reaching 100%; 519 departments and equivalents have been reduced (a reduction of about 77.6%); 219 departments and equivalents have been reduced (a reduction of 54.1%); 3,303 sub-departments and equivalents have been reduced (a reduction of about 91.7%).

For localities, according to the general direction of the Government, 63 provinces and cities have reduced 343 specialized agencies and equivalents under the Provincial People's Committee, reaching a rate of 29%, along with 1,454 specialized agencies under the District People's Committee (a reduction of 17.5%).

Digital transformation and the construction of e-government and digital government have created a fundamental foundation to promote e-government, digital government, as well as digital society, digital citizens and digital economy.

However, according to the Minister of Home Affairs, administrative reform in 2024 still has some limitations.

Regarding the Government's general political tasks in 2025, for administrative reform tasks from now until the end of 2025, the Administrative Reform Subcommittee proposed eight basic tasks.

Firstly, continue to thoroughly grasp, organize and seriously, comprehensively, synchronously and effectively implement the Overall Program of State Administrative Reform for the 2021-2030 period.

Second, promote institutional reform to ensure the requirements of building and perfecting the legal system for creation, development and growth; promptly decentralize and delegate power to meet the requirements of "local decision, local action, local responsibility".

According to Minister Pham Thi Thanh Tra, the National Assembly recently issued two amended laws, including the Law on Government Organization (amended) and the Law on Local Government Organization (amended), which stipulate very specific and clear provisions on decentralization and delegation of power. The National Assembly assigned the Government to issue decrees to amend specialized laws.

However, at present, specialized laws still overlap and do not ensure the goal of decentralization and delegation of power.

"Immediately, all ministries and branches need to base on the Government's plan to promote the issuance of decrees implementing decentralization and delegation of power. The implementation must be in accordance with the motto: Ensuring that localities decide, implement and take responsibility, while at the same time "unleashing" officials, creating more favorable conditions for management and operation" - Minister Pham Thi Thanh Tra said.

According to Ms. Pham Thi Thanh Tra, the Ministry of Home Affairs will preside over and coordinate with ministries, branches and localities to organize a preliminary review of the State administrative reform program for the 2021-2025 period, and at the same time propose key tasks and solutions to continue promoting state administrative reform for the 2026-2030 period.

The fourth task is to focus on implementing the arrangement of provincial-level administrative units, reorganizing commune-level administrative units, and building a two-level local government organization model to ensure prudence, thoroughness, and quality.

“This is a requirement to meet the general direction of the Politburo, the Central Executive Committee, the Government and the Prime Minister, and is an extremely important and urgent task. Therefore, we look forward to receiving close coordination from all relevant ministries and branches to promptly guide localities to effectively carry out this important task.

It is expected that we will complete the entire arrangement of commune-level administrative units before June 30 so that by July 1, commune-level administrative units will be operated under the new organization. We will also focus on completing the merger of provincial-level administrative units before August 30 so that we can immediately implement the operation of provincial-level administrative units starting from September 1," said Minister Pham Thi Thanh Tra.

The Minister of Home Affairs also outlined a number of urgent tasks in the coming time. In particular, in the near future, the pilot model of a one-level Public Administration Service Center under the Provincial People's Committee will be expanded in a number of localities according to plan, and the digitization of records and results of administrative procedure settlement will continue to be promoted.