(Bloomberg) — Vietnam’s Communist Party chief said there’s a pressing case to reform the country’s political system and improve the party’s leadership, as officials grapple with the biggest bureaucratic overhaul in decades.
“The country is facing a new historical moment, posing an urgent need to strongly innovate leadership methods,” To Lam said in a government post Tuesday. “The new organizational model must be better and more effective than the old model,” he added.
The government is in the middle of a major restructuring program involving the merging of ministries and sweeping cuts to government agencies, departments and state media outlets. The plans target an overall reduction in the size of the state by around 20% in a move that’s billed as reducing red tape and slashing the costs of a bloated bureaucracy.
“We are entering an era of national advancement,” To Lam said. “The era of the nation’s advancement is an era of breakthrough and accelerated development.”
The top priority is that by 2030, Vietnam will become a country with a modern industry, and by 2045 it will be a developed country with high income, Lam said.
Proposed changes include the abolition of five government ministries. Most notably the Ministry of Finance will be merged with planning and investment, and transport will be combined with construction. Four government agencies, including the State Capital Management Committee, will be eliminated. Five state television channels, 10 newspapers and 19 magazines will be scrapped.
To Lam’s statement came the same day as a deadline for officials to submit their restructuring reports. They will then be put forward for discussion at extraordinary meetings of the Central Committee and the National Assembly in February.
The state apparatus needs to be “lean, compact, strong, effective and efficient,” Lam said. “This is an urgent requirement that needs to be carried out urgently, strongly, and thoroughly.”
–With assistance from Linh Vu Nguyen.
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