During his meeting on Wednesday with a group of visitors from the World Bank (WB), Standing Vice Chairman of the Da Nang People's Committee Ho Ky Minh highly appreciated the results of the WB's research in the city.

The working session between Da Nang and WB in progress. Photo: danang.gov.vn

He underlined the necessity of the public financial management reform in the context that Da Nang has been concentrating on building a 5-year state financial and budget plan.

He hoped that the WB will strengthen coordination on two pillars of fiscal strategy and medium-term financial and budget plan.

Regarding the fiscal strategy, the municipal People's Committee requested the WB to soon send the draft public financial analysis report prepared by the WB for the city to study and synthesise related contents to serve the work of making a 5-year financial plan for the locality.

As for public asset management, the municipal People's Committee wished WB to promote the development and operation of public housing management applications, as well as other infrastructure management applications in WB’s public asset management database within the framework of the Economic Recovery and Development Programme. This will help departments, agencies and sectors determine investment needs and operation-related tasks in accordance with the process.

Vice Chairman Minh requested that local relevant agencies, in the coming time, to actively provide necessary information when the WB and the Department of Finance collect data on public assets to build a public asset management database.

For her part, Ms. Nguyen Phuong Anh, a senior public administration expert of the WB, unveiled that the technical assistance programme for local public administration reform in Da Nang has been signed and carried out by the municipal People's Committee and the WB since June 2022. The programme focuses on 4 pillars: fiscal strategy; medium-term financial budget plan; public service activity report; and public investment management and public asset management.

After more than 2 years of implementation, the coordination has basically achieved initial results. In particular, with regard to fiscal strategy, WB’s working group has coordinated with the municipal Department of Tourism, the Tax Department and the Department of Finance to study accommodation fees, as well as develop a medium-term financial plan for the 2026-2030 period.

Additionally, WB has partnered with the municipal Department of Finance to organise two training courses on the medium-term financial budget plan for nearly 200 officials and civil servants in departments, agencies, sectors and districts; as well as to directly support departments and districts to pilot the development of medium-term financial budget plans for the 2024-2026 and 2025-2027 periods.

As for public investment management and public asset management, WB has analysed Da Nang's medium-term public investment plan for the 2021-2025 period and proposed improvements in project selection in the next medium-term public investment plan. It has developed a public asset management roadmap for the city starting from considering data collection on public housing, land, urban water supply and wastewater treatment.

Making by MAI QUE - Translating by M.DUNG, P.TRA