Before the ‘zero-dong’ resolution was approved by the Hanoi People’s Council in July 2023, Nguyen Xuan Luu, director of the Hanoi Finance Department said in 2022, the total budget collection from fees and charges in Hanoi was VND9.72 trillion, but only VND36.5 billion was collected online. The majority of people (70 percent) still preferred offline administrative procedures.

To implement the plan on increasing the use of data on population, identification and electronic authentication that serve national digital transformation in 2022-2025, the Hanoi Party Committee released Resolution 18 on digitization and smart city by 2025, under which the city must lead the country in handling all procedures online.

Hanoi has set a goal of having 100 percent of administrative procedures recognized as meeting requirements as stipulated by laws, and technical requirements to provide level-4 public procedures online. 

The one-stop shop continues to be implemented by departments and branches, creating positive effective changes in solving administrative procedures for organizations and individuals.

To reach that goal, the Hanoi People’s Council has approved a resolution on waiving fees for online public services. This will improve the efficiency of administrative procedure implementation, and save travel time and costs, thus creating a premise for digital transformation and smart city development as targeted. 

The free online public service policy applied to 82 types of administrative procedures in Hanoi will be valid until the end of December 2025.

The services exempted from fees include the licensing people to build houses; licensing to build other works; extending construction permits; granting certificates on business registration; certifying changes in business registration certificates; and issuing copies of business registration business certificates and others.

One of the breakthroughs Hanoi has made during its digital transformation process is the procedure to issue criminal records.

More than one year ago, after the 2023 Tet holiday, many Hanoians complained that they had to get up at 4am and visit the legal department to queue up to register for criminal records.

At that time, the legal department had to use seven more officers receiving and handling dossiers for criminal records and increase the number of daily working hours. Though the officers worked hard with no weekend, they still suffered from overload.

On April 22, the Hanoi Department of Justice began applying a new process of granting criminal records online based on VNeID for Vietnamese citizens who have level-2 electronic identification accounts. Those who still don’t have accounts can follow procedures on the Hanoi's Administrative Procedures Information System.

The electronic versions of criminal records have the same legal value like the original paper version. Electronic criminal records are automatically returned to citizens' accounts on VNeID, the National Public Service Portal, and the Hanoi's Administrative Procedures Information System.

Most dossiers and granted criminal records are implemented on online environment and the results are sent via post offices, according to Pham Thi Thanh Huong, deputy director of the Hanoi Department of Justice. 

With online services provided on a trial basis, the scenes of people queuing up for criminal records are no longer seen in Hanoi. Huong stressed that administrative reform, intensified application of information technology and diversification of the types of criminal record granting all have eased the workload and sped up the process.

At a meeting of the Working Group in charge of implementing the government’s Project 06 in late March 2024, General To Lam, who was then Minister of Public Security, Head of the Working Group, praised the achievements gained in recent months, and requested to consider applying Project 06 and the ‘zero-dong’ policy in other localities as well.

Hanoi Mayor Tran Sy Thanh stressed that digital transformation is a matter of survival for the capital city. Whether or not digital transformation succeeds will depend on the awareness of the heads of departments and districts. With the strong political determination, Hanoi will make positive changes in digital transformation, thus contributing to the city’s socio-economic development.

To realize Resolution 18, in September 2023, the Hanoi Department of Information and Communications advised the municipal authorities to promulgate Plan 239 on digital transformation and developing Hanoi into a smart city.

The department also proposed that the local authorities release Plan 310 on piloting the digital transformation model at some state agencies, including the transport department, taxation department, Kinh Te & Do Thi newspaper, and the districts of Hoan Kiem, Long Bien and Chuong My. 

Quang Phong