The “Viet Nam Provincial Governance and Public Administration Performance Index (PAPI) 2012” seminar took place in Da Nang on Tuesday.  It was jointly organised by the National Assembly(NA)'s Institute for Legislative Research, and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).  Present at the event were the Institute’s head, Dinh Xuan Thao, UNDP Deputy Country Director in Viet Nam Bakhodir Burkhanov, Da Nang People’s Committee Vice Chairman Phung Tan Viet, along with representatives from 14 municipal and provincial People’s Councils (PC) in the central region.

In 2011, the PAPI was conducted for the first time in the 63 cities and provinces nationwide.  Under last year’s PAPI survey, close to 14,000 people across the country were interviewed to present their opinions about the performance of their local governments.

Based on the international standard research methods, the PAPI 2012 focused on surveying citizens’ participation at grassroots level, transparency, accountability, the control over corruption in public services, public administrative procedures, and public service delivery.

Delivered by the UNDP Policy Advisor on Public Administration Reform and Anti-Corruption, Mr Jairo Acuna-Alfaro, a report on PAPI 2012 showed an improvement in the governance and public administrative services against the previous year.  Da Nang and the provinces of Quang Binh, Thai Binh and Binh Dinh were placed in high positions in last year’s PAPI rankings.  Generally, some localities in the central region saw positive results in the above-mentioned indices.  The country will aim to help localities nationwide to score 50 of the PAPI’s 60 points.

Addressing the event, Dr Thao said that last year’s rankings pointed out the strengths and weaknesses of localities in terms of governance and public administrative services, as well as showed levels of their performance improvements.  He added that the rankings would help members of the NA and municipal and provincial PCs to access information about public administrative services in their localities so that they can find ways to enhance the efficiency of their policies.