Slashing the new cabinet

“That’s a rational model of government,” commented Dr. Le Dang Doanh, senior expert of the Ministry of Planning and Investment.

He said that the merging of the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Trade, the Fisheries Ministry and the Agriculture and Rural Development Ministry were appropriate moves in the integration process.

Mr. Doanh said that the establishment of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce was more notable. In the past, industry and commerce sectors had different policies with one sector opening its door while the other closed its door. Now the foreign and local markets are communicative and they need a connection in the control of production and trade as well. The producers must have responsibility for sales.

But more importantly, according to Mr. Doanh, the functions, power and missions of the new ministry, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, must be set under the rules of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and ensure a competitive environment under control, without groundless protection.

The merging of the Ministry of Fisheries and Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development into the Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture is also a suitable change.

Both fishery and agriculture sectors use land and water resources and they have many similar aspects so the combination of the two fields can help make optimal policies to develop agriculture and fishery.

The combination of Culture, Sports and Tourism into one ministry is said to be a difficult task because culture is a complicated and wide area. It is challenging to merge and stabilise this ministry, which is the aggregate of three bodies – the Ministry of Culture and Information, the National Committee for Sports and Physical Training and the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism.

The Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment still keeps its name but it has one more mission: managing sea and islands. “The strategy on the sea is a long-term vision and the new ministry will help the Prime Minister to do that task,” said Dr. Tran Dinh Thien from the Vietnam Economics Institute.

According to Dr. Thien, the Ministry of Information and Communications needs to define new functions to be able to meet rapid changes in this sector in the future.

Regarding the increase of Deputy Prime Ministers, Dr. Thien said that reducing ministries while increasing Deputy Prime Ministers could be understood as a way to diminish tasks for the Prime Minister so he will have more time for greater jobs.

Effectiveness is the most important

The effort to make the government structure tidier is good if the adjustment makes ministries which operate under new rules. If the merging of ministries is only a surface change, without a change in nature, the reduction of ministries can even restrict the capability of the government, said Dr. Le Dang Doanh.

Moreover, it is necessary to have a mechanism to make clear the responsibility of Deputy Prime Ministers and Ministers and separating administration of production and business from state administration and abolishing the mechanism in which ministries directly manage enterprises.

Dr. Doanh still worries about three points. Firstly, in economic integration, is the state machinery of Vietnam compatible to that of other countries? If not, problems will appear in the integration process.

Secondly, though the government structure is tidier, it is still very cumbersome. For example, in food hygiene management, any kind of food that is sourced on land belongs to the management of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. Those that are underwater belong to the Ministry of Fisheries and those pertaining to quality measurement are under the control of the Ministry of Science and Technology. Those that are sold at markets are ruled by the Ministry of Trade and those that are related to human health are controlled by the Ministry of Health.

This mechanism has led to the fact, as many people have said: “Success has many parents but failure is an illegitimate child”.

According to Dr. Bui The Vinh, former Director of the Institute for Administrative Research, the government’s operation is a twig among twigs on the same tree – the state system. He said that what was required was an adjustment of the administrative machinery at localities, not only at the central level.

“The effectiveness of the government’s operation at localities is hindered by the old mechanism,” he said.

The responsibility of ministers

With the establishment of new ministries on a larger scale, difficulties in merging and stabilising the machinery and personnel of those ministries will be a fact. To solve conflicts of short-term interests which come from the merging and splitting of ministries as well as conflicts of long-term interests, ministers are the key.

According to Dr. Bui The Vinh, ministers of Vietnam are only responsible and focus on the missions of their own ministries. Their function as members of the cabinet is very dim.

It is necessary to clearly define the responsibility of each member of the government and government agencies but reality requires flexible connections between ministries and ministers.

A big ministry, with a huge amount of work, requires its minister to spend his time on handling common tasks, not to go to groundbreaking ceremonies of construction works or to cut inauguration ribbons for new factories.

Which space for the people?

An important issue that Vietnam has not settled yet: the transparency in the work of the government. According to Dr. Le Dang Doanh, the people only see state officials busy with meetings and don’t know what they do for the people.

“Sometimes, a ministry makes jobs for another. This ministry invites that ministry, this province exchanges with that province and the people benefit nothing from this. The advancement of the government is actually the adjustment of the relations between the state machinery and the people, businesses. The government should help the people to have more supervision over the state machinery,” Dr. Doanh added.

Dr. Vinh also quoted an example. There are only several seafood companies of Vietnam that violate food hygiene standards but when Japan stops importing seafood from Vietnam, many Vietnamese people are influenced.

This case could be prevented if the state gave the right to oversee seafood producers to the seafood association accompanied by clear regulations. The association can collect money from seafood firms to supervise seafood quality instead of ministries having to recruit more employees to supervise millions of aquatic breeding families.

“The government should make plans for the participation of people,” said Dr. Doanh. While participating in the government’s plans, the right to know and to comment of the people is promoted.

For the people, when the cabinet has changes, they pay more attention to what the government has prepared and what it will do for them than what agencies the government has more or less of. That’s the task for the new cabinet members.

Source: TBKTSG