Professor Carl Thayer (Australian Defense Force Academy), Dr. Huynh The Du (Harvard University, U.S) and Dr. Dang Hoang Giang shared with Zing.vn on the first year of the new Government.

Nguyen Xuan Phuc takes his oath to become Prime Minister on April 7, 2016.

On 7/4/2016, Mr. Nguyen Xuan Phuc took his oath to become Prime Minister after being elected with 90% votes by the National Assembly.

Two days after that, his Government was formed with 27 members, officially taking office.

Zing.vn discussed with domestic and foreign experts on one year performancce of the new Government, overlapping 2 terms of XII and XIII of the National Assembly.    

- How do you view the performance of the Government and Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on the first year?

Prof. Carl Thayer from Australia: For me, the year 2016 witnessed the continuity and practicality rather than decisive change in Viet Nam’s reform program.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has a lot of experience in the Government when he used to be the Head of the Government Office and Deputy Prime Minister. 

The reforms that he is advocating, such as increased Government transparency, equitization of SOEs, fight against waste to increase efficiency, improve the operation of the Government, spending control... will take a long time to implement. The Prime Minister also used the Task Force quite effectively.

Dr. Dang Hoang Giang, Deputy Director of CECODES: The Government has given a rational message on a right direction: The constructive and action Government. It has to be a modern, transparent, efficient government that uses a lot of evidence and data in policy making and has to be a Government to serve, not just to manage.

In the past year, the Prime Minister and his associates have done a lot of great actions that I and my colleagues have observed: simplifying complicated administrative procedures for businesses, stopping the exploitation of forests ... These are important things to prevent Viet Nam from falling behind.

However, in the long run, whether these commitments could be realized or not is still an open question.

I am most impressed with the Government's achievements in improving the business environment. In the ranking of the World Bank this year, Viet Nam’s rank has risen to 9 levels, becoming one of the 60 most competitive economies in the world.

Dr. Huynh The Du, Harvard University, USA: My greatest impression on the Government of Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc is the practical actions, which are in line with the motto of the Government of Action that he has set out.

The problem of Viet Nam is known by many, what is necessary is to act. Recently, the Government has made some drastic instructions, especially the guidelines for institutional reform, improving the business environment.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has made an effort to improve the business environment, to seek institutional reform to create transparency in providing direction and management of the Government and its agencies.

The Prime Minister is also trying to travel a lot, working with many sectors, many localities. On the infrastructure, I find the Prime Minister has made decisive directives for transportation such as the North - South highway.

- Which Ministers impressed you the most in the past year?

Dr. Huynh The Du: If I have to choose, it is Minister of Finance Dinh Tien Dung.

Mr. Dung shows that he is a person who understands the system with a tight budget management mindset. The budget holder, especially in the current context, needs to be reminded of the calculation of each Dong. I see Mr Dung follows this approach.

Prof. Carl Thayer: In my opinion, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has shown himself to be a team player, in regard of balancing between reform and handling the shortcomings of the previous term.  

Some site visits of Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc to Long Bien wholesale market, a street “pho” eatery in HCMC to invite the whole delegation for breakfast and a coffee... are typical site visits of Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc in the past year.

- Which actions of the Government that should be improved?

Dr. Huynh The Du: Regarding the highway construction, with limited resources, I think it is necessary to focus on areas that are capable of generating motivation, such as HCMC and the Southeast region instead of spreading investment.

Infrastructure investments in these areas also help attract human resource of high quality as they have many options of working in Singapore, Malaysia or Indonesia. If Viet Nam does not have a favorable infrastructure and working environment, it will be challenging to retain talents.

I would like to emphasize that the harmonious development of regions is important, but more importantly, Viet Nam needs to take the upper hand in the global competition with the focus of attracting and retaining the talented, the rich and businesses.

One of the important issues in the future is the need to focus resources in places with high international competitiveness.

Dr. Dang Hoang Giang: I would like to talk about aspect of the Government for the people, since that is the field that I am in charge. Looking at the index of public services, school systems, hospitals, roads, electricity, I can see the situation has improved significantly. And those improvements are not easy to carry out, they require a lot of financial resources.

Prof. Carl Thayer: The incident of dead fish poisoning in Central Viet Nam is an outcome that has exposed difficulties in inter-ministerial coordination. Marine pollution problems show many inadequacies in enforcing environmental regulations and responding quickly to clean the environment, compensate victims, fishermen and their families.

- What do you think are difficulties that are slowing the reforms in Viet Nam and what are the solutions?

Dr. Huynh The Du: The most difficult is how to encourage people to work. Prime Minister at the seat of the ship puller, there still needs people to push the boat. Who in society are the groups that want to change, support the government to facilitate? They are the people, the press, social organizations ... They need to be mobilized.

Dr. Dang Hoang Giang: Information transparency is extremely important.

Another issue is the connectivity and discussion mechanism for good ideas. The Prime Minister has a lot of work so it is difficult to join or meet different people or different groups. Moreover, after meetings or ideas exchanges, it is necessary to discuss and assess initiatives and proposals.

I wish the Government to rely more and more on the contribution and consultation of the people, the experts, social organizations./.

VGP