Eight districts and 563 communes have been eliminated as part of administrative reform. The figures will double or triple in the time to come.

Offering attractive salaries and working conditions, HCM City has been able to recruit only five "talented" experts in the last four years.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh chaired the third session of the Government’s Steering Committee for Administrative Reform on February 3, stressing that administrative reform must centre on people and enterprises.

Minister Pham Thi Thanh Tra has put forward priorities for the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in 2023.

The Party Central Committee’s Economic Commission is working on three plans that will be submitted to the Politburo for approval.

HCM City Vice Chair Duong Anh Duc said at a seminar on using artificial intelligence (AI) in public administration that AI is an important tool that brings great benefits to the public and authorities.

On December 13, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and Vietnam Post organized an online training course for a team surveying people’s satisfaction about state agencies in 2022.

Under the current wage scheme, a new university graduate working at state agencies would be paid a base rate of VND3.5 million (US$140), which is only enough to pay rent for a room in Hanoi or HCM City.

More than 67% of enterprises paid "unofficial" costs in construction inspection activities and 61.36% for conditional business licenses.

Minister of Home Affairs Pham Thi Thanh Tra says the government plans to cut 17 general directorates and equivalent units, eight authorities, 145 departments and equivalent units. The base salary is expected to rise by 20.8 percent.

Carrying out wage reform is one of the urgent solutions National Assembly Deputy Ta Thi Yen has proposed to retain staff amid the mass departure of state officers for the private sector.

The newly-elected Chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee, Tran Sy Thanh, stressed his commitment to continue pushing for administrative reform and enhance efficiency in the operation of the public apparatus.

The overlapping and inconsistency of legal documents continues to make things difficult for businesses. 

“Flow of business law in 2021”, a report of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, shows that hundreds of circulars that guide the implementation of laws are issued each year. The quality and transparency of the documents are in question.

Business environment reform has been slowing down over the last two years. Some bad regulations that were removed because they hindered the development of enterprises have been revived.

The number of civil servants at the district level has been reduced by 706 out of 2,411, while the number of cadres and civil servants at the commune level has been cut by 9,694 out of 20,403 under the program on district and commune mergers.

The task on state apparatus streamlining set by the Politburo was fulfilled in 2021 for the first time. More than 10 percent of civil servant personnel and 11.67 percent of public employees at non-business public units have been cut.

Noting that the apparatus inside ministries and branches is still cumbersome and hierarchical, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has asked ministers to restructure departments and general departments.

In 2021, there were a total of 1,173 departments and branches, which means seven departments and branches were cut. Around 10 percent of the number of civil servants and 11.67 percent of public employees were reduced.