HCM CITY – HCM City is eyeing bottom-up administrative reforms, a meeting between city leaders and commune and ward leaders heard on Tuesday.

“The entire city can develop if each ward and commune develops and the chairperson of each ward and commune listens to public complaints sympathetically and tries to resolve them as soon as possible,” Nguyễn Thành Phong, chairman of the city People’s Committee was quoted as saying by Sài Gòn Giải Phóng (Liberated Sài Gòn) newspaper.

“Local authorities should often meet with the people, provide all information related to policies and how we deal with their problems to prevent complaints to higher levels.”

In the inner city, the administrative unit below district level is the ward. It is called commune in outlying districts.

Last year 24 wards and communes undertook administrative reform. For instance, now in Bến Thành Ward in District 1 and Linh Trung and Linh Xuân wards in Thủ Đức District, government offices accept documents during non-working hours, Hiệp Bình Chánh Ward in Thủ Đức District has set up a hotline for inquiries related to administrative procedures and Bình An Ward in District 2 completes judicial and civil administrative tasks by sending employees at people’s houses.

Increasingly, besides maintaining social order and security and promoting socio-economic development, commune/ward authorities also have to deal with foreigners despite language barriers.

Some 5,000 foreigners live in Thảo Điền Ward in District 2. Tân Phú Ward in District 7 has 23 apartments with many foreigners living in them.

Lê Tiến Sĩ, chairman of Tân Định Ward in District 1, said, “The city should issue policies to support household businesses upgrade into companies, especially register online for tax.”

Võ Ngọc Ẩn, chairman of Ward 11 in District 6, said: “Permanent and temporary registration of residents with police can be simplified by using data from the population census.”

Nguyễn Thành Trung, the chairman of Phước Lộc Commune in Nhà Bè District, said: “The city should focus on reforming paperwork for land compensation and clearance because it is complicated and takes too long.”

Phong instructed the Department of Home Affairs to consider all the suggestions from ward/commune chairpersons.

“We are delighted to see chairpersons of wards and communes are younger, have good professional skills and are dedicated to society.

“In the new year I hope [they] will adopt policies appropriate for their locality and do whatever that benefits local people.”.

From next year meetings between city and ward/commune leaders will involve more interaction unlike now when it is mostly about the latter being given instructions.

The city has a total of 322 wards and communes. — VNS