Hanoi (VNA) - TheVietnamese Government is recommended to cut two ministries and one deputyprime minister, according to a proposal to comprehensively restructure theGovernment for the first time in 15 years.
The Institute for StateOrganisational Sciences of the Ministry of Home Affairs announced the proposalon February 19 at a conference on recommendations for the Governmentrestructuring in the next five-year term of 2021-26.
The institute’s president, DrLe Anh Tuan, who announced the proposal, said the Government should cut thenumber of ministries from the current 22 to 20 by merging the Ministry ofFinance and the Ministry of Planning and Investment into the Ministry ofFinance-Planning and Investment, and the Ministry of Transport and the Ministryof Construction into the Ministry of Transport and Construction.
A number of drastic changeswill also be made to other ministries, according to the official.
The Ministry of Education andTraining will become the Ministry of Education after the training task istransferred to the Ministry of Science and Technology. The latter will changeits name to the Ministry of Science, Technology and Training.
The new science ministry will also take over the management of vocationaltraining from the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs.
The proposal also suggests forming the new Ministry of Industry, Trade andTourism which is a combination of the current Ministry of Industry and Tradeand the tourism function of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
The culture ministry will instead have a new task – taking care the country’syoung generations – and will have its name changed to the Ministry of Culture,Sports and Youth.
The streamlining proposal was made after considering the Government structureof many developed countries with economies much larger than Vietnam’s, Tuan said,citing the United States with 15 departments, Germany with 14 ministries,Singapore with 16 and France with 18.
Vietnam, meanwhile, has had 22ministries and counterpart agencies, as well as eight Governmentalorganisations for the last three office terms since 2007, he said.
“It’s easy to see that indeveloped countries, the Government structure tends to be leaner. Lessministries means less focal points for management,” Tuan said.
The proposal also wants toremove one deputy prime minister from the current five.
“A deputy prime minister isin fact a middle role, which somehow invades the rights and duties of aminister who acts as the one responsible for a sector,” he said.
A deputy prime minister in Vietnamis usually tasked with overseeing a couple of ministries.
Assigning several deputyprime ministers is also inappropriate to the principle of assuring the rightsand responsibilities of the Prime Minister, he added.
Home affairs minister Le VinhTan in an interview late last year said that the ministry was developing amaster plan to streamline the central Government by trimming down ministries in2020. Such a plan is also expected to be voted on this year, he said./.
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