HÀ NỘI — The capital city needs stronger determination and participation by authorities and citizens to reach its growth target for this year, said National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyễn Thị Kim Ngân.

Hà Nội has to grow by 9.5 per cent in the second half of this year in order to reach its socio-economic growth target of 8.5-9 per cent for the whole year, she said at an opening ceremony of the fourth session of the city’s People’s Council yesterday.

The city needs to improve its Public Administration Performance Index (PAPI) ranking with a focus on three weak indexes, including people’s participation in public administration at grassroots level, transparency, and vertical accountability, she said.

“Its Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI) ranking must also be improved, with a focus on the five indexes of market entry, access to land, transparency and access to information, fair competitive environment, and the dynamism and pioneering characteristic of the city’s government,” she added.

"The city’s government needs to be more proactive in monitoring and making decisions on important issues and decrees that will have long-term effects."

"The city’s People’s Council needs to meet with voters and citizens more, facilitate solving citizens’ complaints and denunciations, improve the effectiveness of the process of verification and monitoring, as well as focusing more on training officials and specialists."

Ngân stressed that the fourth session of the city’s People’s Council is an important session in which the city will review what it has and has not achieved in the first half of the year, and set directions and targets for the second half.

Some of the issues to be discussed at the fourth session include transport management to ease traffic congestion and reduce environmental pollution in the 2017-21 period, kindergarten and general education tuition fees for the 2017-18 school year, as well as compensation and benefits for officials who meet with and handle citizens’ complaints and denunciations.

Speaking at the ceremony yesteday, Nguyễn Thị Bích Ngọc, chairwoman of the Hà Nội People’s Council, admitted the city’s shortcomings in striving for the socio-economic growth targets in the first half of the year.

“The city’s PAPI ranking dropped 8 levels compared to 2015, putting it in a low position compared to other localities (58/63),” she said. “However, the city has made an effort to improve the investment environment for enterprises and start-up businesses,” she added. “It is ranked second nationwide for technology readiness, and third on the Public Administration Reform (PAR) Index,” she said. — VNS