Starting from 1 September, citizens in Da Nang can either call or text the city’s Public Service Information Centre to arrange appointments with some local government agencies for administrative transactions, rather than attending in person to book. 

Switchboard operators at the Public Service Information Centre (Photo: VNA)

The useful service will initially only be available for the municipal departments of Planning and Investment, Construction, and Home Affairs, but will be expanded to other departments later.

In detail, local residents can ring the free hotline 05113 881888 during working hours Monday to Friday, and they will need to leave their name, phone number, the name of the department they wish to attend, the nature of the business to be conducted, and a suggested appointment date and time.

Alternatively, they can text ‘HG [Name of Sender] [Name of Agency] [Nature of Business] [Suggested Date and Time] to 8188.  Each text costs 1,000 VND.

Once an appointment is confirmed by the switchboard operators with a code of date and time via phone and text, citizens must then visit the city’s Public Service Information Centre at 2 Quang Trung street to receive a confirmation slip to present to the agency.

Those who want to later cancel an appointment can call the same hotline or text ‘HUYHG [The Code of Date and Time] to 8188. 

For the moment, conversations via phone and text will only be conducted in Vietnamese.

If residents do not arrive for their appointments within 10 minutes of the booked time, it will be cancelled.