Good morning, Xin Chào!
The signing today of the Partnership Framework between the Office of the Government and the World Bank marks an important milestone towards strengthening the critical reform agenda of Vietnam in the coming years. It is also another tangible sign of the strong and long-standing partnership between the Bank and the Government of Vietnam.
Above all, first, I would like to warmly congratulate the Office of the Government on its recent 73th anniversary. I admire outstanding achievements of generations of leaders and devoted colleagues of the Office over the past seven decades that contributed greatly to the development of Vietnam, throughout the wars, reconstruction and “Doi Moi” in the late 1980s.
The Partnership Framework aims to support the Office of the Government to strengthen the mechanisms for delivering reforms in administrative procedures and e-government, which are key strategic areas identified in the Vietnam 2035 Report.
Under the strong leadership of Prime Minister Phuc, the government has been stepping up and making great efforts to streamline administrative procedures, to cut-down red tape, and improve business environment during past recent years. These efforts have produced positive impacts on improving the business environment, which was internationally recognized by Vietnam moving up in the World Bank’s 2018 Doing Business and logistic index rankings. They, no doubt, have contributed to Vietnam’s strong economic performance in recent years and attractiveness.
But more can be done to further unleash Vietnam’s economic growth potentials. And reforms are one of them. We should not be afraid of reforms but instead to design reform carefully and implement them effectively. I believe coupling public administrative reforms with sequenced and fundamental e-government initiatives is a sensible agenda in modernizing Vietnam’s administration. This will significantly strengthen intra-government efficiency and provide great benefits to business and citizens in the relationships of the government with these stakeholders. This has been proved successful in many countries, including Australia, Estonia, France, Singapore, South Korea, to name a few. The time has come for Vietnam’s administration to align itself with the best. We must have ambitions, we can do it and we can achieve it. Given the strong government leadership and commitment, the country’s pool of technical capacity and the need to embrace digital technology, re-engineering government’s processes is an imperative to be on time at Industry 4.0 “rendez vous”.
Ladies and gentlemen,
I am very pleased to inform you that the World Bank and the Office of the Government have jointly prepared a framework for our strategic cooperation to ensure government’s reform priorities in e-streamlining government procedures and processes deliver their outcomes. Priority reform areas include deploying e-Cabinet system – towards paper-free cabinet meetings, establishing a national portal for e-Services, and ensuring interoperability between government’s various information systems and databases. We will support the OOG with our ongoing technical assistance, mobilizing other resources, as well as leveraging on the World Bank’s international experience and best practices in supporting many other governments in institutional and e-government building toward digital economy.
Towards realizing these e-government reform efforts and in support of this Partnership Framework, I would also like to underscore the valuable contributions of Australia through the Australia – World Bank Strategic Partnership. We, the Government of Australia and the World Bank, are delighted to join hands with the Government of Vietnam in this critical reform agenda.
Let me conclude by expressing my confidence in the strong and committed leadership of the OOG as well as of the whole government. Rest assured the World Bank’s trusted partnership with the OOG for the successful implementation of the e-government reform agenda.
I wish you all good health, happiness and success. Thank you, xin cảm ơn!
