Hanoi aims for the rate of public satisfaction on the quality of public services to reach 85% in 2023, and at least 95% two years later.

Realizing administrative procedures at Hoai Duc District, Hanoi. Photo:Cong Tam

The goal was revealed in plan No.136/KH-UBND on reforming administrative procedures in the capital city during the 2021-2025 period.

By aiming for higher public service quality, Hanoi expects to improve its rank in the Provincial Governance and Public Administration Index (PAPI), which assesses citizen experiences with national and local government performance in the field, by five places every year.

In the 2020 PAPI Index, Hanoi’s score was 41.63 out of the maximum 80, a slight improvement from the 41.54 scores obtained the previous year. This resulted in the city’s ranking at 48^th out of 63 provinces/cities.

On measures to improve the ranking, Hanoi aims to continue raising awareness among public servants on regulations and laws regarding anti-corruption and waste combat.

While the city strives to simplify and remove an additional 20% of obsolete administrative procedures, it also calls for all localities to maintain the 100% rate of administrative applications being processed on time.

In 2021, Hanoi is expected to complete the digitalization process of returning results from administrative procedures by 30% at city-, 20% of the district- and 15% at ward-levels. By 2022, such rates should be improved by at least 20% and an average increase of 30% by 2025.

Regarding the process of establishing e-government, Hanoi would try to keep the rate of people using public online services by at least 50% from the total application, and 100% of documents being processed would be digitalized for the record.

Dr. Dang Hoang Giang, a research team member of the 2020 PAPI report, told Hanoitimes that the key factor for Hanoi to increase the rank is to translate the determination of the city’s leaders in improving public services into the daily operation of the city’s grassroots agencies.

“Specific actions are needed to improve transparency and create greater convenience for citizens in the fields of healthcare, education, land plans, or fighting off petty corruption,” Giang stated.

“Unless there are substantial improvements in providing public services to the people at each component of Hanoi’s administrative apparatus, all policies and decisions of the leaders would not be effective,” he noted.