Source: Voice of Vietnam, Hanoi, in Vietnamese 2300 gmt 5 Mar 02 JOURNAL-

CODE: WBMS Global News Wire - Asia Africa Intelligence Wire, Copyright 2002
BBC Monitoring/BBC, BBC Monitoring International Reports, March 6, 2002

HEADLINE: VIETNAMESE PREMIER CALLS FOR IMPROVED

DEMOCRACY AT LOCAL LEVEL
Text of report by Vietnamese radio on 5 March
The two-day national conference to review the implementation of democratic regulation at
the grass-roots level closed in Hanoi on 5 March. Prime Minister Phan Van Khai attended and
addressed the closing session. The regulation was issued by the Communist Party of Vietnam
CPV Central Committee Political Bureau in 1998. In his address, Prime Minister Khai said
democratic regulation at the grass-roots level must be carried out hand in hand with the
strengthening of local administration. He said: Implementation of the democratic regulation
over the past three years has helped to improve the effectiveness of local administrations and
state employees, who shifted from bureaucracy and red-tape to democratization, transparency,
and respect for the people’s opinions.
The prime minister said, however, that these are just preliminary results, and that the number
of local administrative agencies that have carried out the regulation effectively remained
modest and that many agencies failed to appropriately implement the regulation. The
regulation has not yet been exercised in administrative agencies with complicated internal
situations or whose officials committed mistakes. The prime minister said that the
government has asked ministries and local administrative agencies to concentrate their efforts
on the following tasks:
• First, effectively carrying out the resolutions just passed by the CPV Central Committee’s
fifth plenum, including the resolution on reforming and improving the quality of the
political system at the grass-roots level. It also aims to strengthen the multifaceted
operation of the political system and bring into full play the people’s right to mastery.
• Second, translating the contents of the democratic regulation into the routine work of
administrative units at all levels. To achieve this, a thorough consideration must be given
to opinions contributed by the people during the course of compiling legal documents and
policies, and implementing programmes and projects. Administrative units must be work
in a democratic and transparent way. Greater efforts must be made to accelerate
administrative reform, covering a thorough review of legal documents to cancel those
that are no longer legitimate and suitable. Further simplification of administrative
procedures and shortening of the regulated time for administrative settlement are other
imperative tasks. Local authorities, heads of government agencies, and state businesses
must have a monthly schedule to receive petitioners, discover, and timely settle the
people’s petitions.
• Third, continuing to complete the democratic regulation at the grass-roots level and make
necessary amendments and supplements to existing rules.
• Fourth, building a contingent of qualified local officials, ethically and professionally, who
are capable of mobilizing and organizing the people to carry out the party’s line and
state’s policies while at the same time bringing into full play people’s right to mastery
and self-governance.