A national conference to review the performance of the People’s Councils of provinces and centrally-run cities nationwide in 2023 was held on Monday in Hà Nội. — VNA/VNS Photo Nhan Sáng

HÀ NỘI — The National Assembly (NA) Standing Committee held a national conference in Hà Nội on Monday to review the performance of the People’s Councils of provinces and centrally-run cities nationwide in 2023 and launch tasks for this year.

The event also saw the presence of Politburo members: NA Chairman Vương Đình Huệ; Permanent member of the Party Central Committee’s Secretariat and Chairwoman of the Party Central Committee’s Organisation Commission Trương Thị Mai; and Permanent NA Vice Chairman Trần Thanh Mẫn, among others.

Opening the conference, Permanent Vice Chairman of the NA Mẫn said over more than half of the 2021-26 tenure, the NA and the NA Standing Committee have carried out a number of reforms and devised measures for better supervising and directing activities of the People’s Councils, from perfecting the legal foundation to increasing activities that connect the NA, its Standing Committee, and their agencies with the provincial-level People’s Councils.

The People's Councils have also exerted efforts to boost reforms and creativity during the performance of tasks. Closely following the Party’s guidelines and the State’s policies and laws, they have issued resolutions, mechanisms, and policies meeting demand in their localities, thereby substantially contributing to the realisation of local and national socio-economic development, defence, security, and external affairs targets, he continued.

The organisation of the annual conference was an occasion for the NA and its Standing Committee to enhance the momentum for reform at local people-elected bodies, Man added.

However, the official also pointed out several shortcomings, elaborating that the quality of meetings of some People’s Councils remains limited. Some have yet to take strong or effective enough measures for fully handling post-supervision opinions.

The settlement and reply to voters’ opinions and petitions are still slow in some provinces and cities. Besides, some people's councils haven’t released digital transformation and IT application directions on schedule while agencies’ coordination is still lax.

Man described 2024 as a year of “acceleration” critical to the implementation of the resolutions of the 13th National Party Congress and all-level Party congresses, as well as to the preparation for all-level Party congresses ahead of the 14th National Party Congress. The year is also important to the preparation for the election of deputies to the 16th-tenure NA and all-level People’s Councils in the 2026-31 tenure.

Given this, the entire political system needs to act in line with the spirit of Party General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng’s writing issued on the occasion of the Party’s 94th anniversary earlier this year. These writings show high determination, great efforts, drastic action, dynamism, and creativity, tackle bottlenecks and problems in a timely manner, bring into play democracy in tandem with sustaining discipline, ensure proper coordination in leadership, management, and governance, pay due attention to quality and effectiveness in reality, and make breakthroughs for development, Mẫn remarked. — VNS