Giving his speech at the Wednesday scientific conference on urban governance models in Da Nang, and Viet Nam today, Deputy Secretary of the municipal Party Committee cum Chairman of the People's Council Luong Nguyen Minh Triet emphasised that this was a very valuable opportunity for the city to receive comments to propose competent authorities to amend and supplement Resolution No. 119/2020/QH14 of the National Assembly on piloting urban governance model in order to complete the model, and specific mechanisms and policies for the city development.

Deputy Secretary of the municipal Party Committee cum Chairman of the People's Council Luong Nguyen Minh Triet speaking at the event

According to the Resolution No. 119/2020/QH14, there are municipal People’s Committee and People's Council. There are no longer any ward and district -level People’s Councils in Da Nang. It means that instead of having both a People’s Committee and a People’s Council, each district and each ward are governed only by the ward and district -level People’s Committee.

Deputy Secretary Triet remarked after more than 3 years of implementing, the pilot urban governance model in the city has initially promoted its superiority.

The State administrative apparatus has been streamlined, combined with promoting decentralisation and authorisation, gradually enhancing the roles and responsibilities of governments at all levels, and promoting democracy at the grassroots and improving the efficiency of the State administrative system.

The People's Committees at district and ward levels have operated under the leadership mechanism, promoting the initiative and flexibility, and increasing the responsibility of the leaders. The new civil service regime has created a basis for standardising the ward civil servant team towards professionalism.

The organisation and administration of People's Committees at all levels have remained stable and smooth. The local basic socio-economic indicators all have achieved quite good results. National defense, political security, social order and safety have been guaranteed.

People's democratic rights have been strengthened and promoted. Heads at all levels have actively dialogued with the people, promptly resolving people's feedback and recommendations right at the grassroots level.

In particular, there have been many effective models and methods of many districts and wards in the process of implementing the urban governance model. According to survey results, more than 80% of people have agreed with the policy of piloting urban governance model in the city.

Deputy Secretary Triet also pointed out some initial difficulties during the pilot implementation of the urban governance model in the city, including the financial and budget management mechanism, inflexible regulations on district organisational structure, and ineffective specific mechanisms and policies.

During the event, experts, scientists, and people with experience in the field of government building provided profound theoretical and practical arguments, contributing to helping localities in general and the central government in particular to continue to perfect this model in the coming time.

The conference in progress

Speaking at the conference, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pham Minh Tuan, who is Deputy Editor-in-Chief in charge of the Communist Review, said that since the pilot project was implemented, urban authorities in big cities like Ha Noi, Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang were gradually carried out synchronously, perfecting and unifying institutions, functions, tasks, organisational apparatus and operating mechanisms. The quality of cadres and civil servants has been increasingly improved, meeting the requirements of the country's construction and development in the new context.

Awareness of sectors and levels, especially the roles and responsibilities of heads of agencies and units, has been increasingly changing positively. The autonomy and self-responsibility of heads of specialised agencies and district-level People's Committees in implementing state management tasks according to fields and areas have been constantly promoted.

Authority, autonomy, and self-responsibility of departments, branches, and localities, especially in the fields of investment and financial management, land, and budget have been strengthened.

According to Mr. Pham Minh Tuan, the event featured discussions about favourable conditions, strengths, obstacles, barriers and challenges in building urban government in our country in general and Da Nang in particular.

Besides, main tasks and solutions were rolled out to build, perfect, and improve the effectiveness and efficiency of urban governance models in our country in the current period.

​Reporting by TRONG HUY - Translating by M.DUNG