UK politicians and managers should look to Southeast Asia for inspiration, including Vietnam , where efficient public administrative services can be found.


The UK ’s Guardian newspaper on Nov. 15 cited a new report from the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) which compared the efficiency of public services globally.


According to the article, since the end of the war in 1975, Vietnam has transformed its impoverished, centrally-planned economy to a mixed and fast-developing one, where GDP has grown between 5 and 8 percent each year.


More recently, Vietnam has instituted a radical simplification of its public sector. In 2007, the Government launched Project 30, a plan to cut its administrative procedures by 30 percent. The country created a single national database of all its administrative procedures and then assessed them against three criteria: whether they are necessary, whether they are user friendly, and whether they are legal, it said.


Vietnam has not yet succeeded in cutting its public services by almost a third, but it has reached what the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) calls a "crucial stage" in attempting to implement its radical cuts, with the first results only just beginning to materialise.


The paper added that in the UK , this bold approach will be music to the ears of the government's efficiency and reform group, which has been wielding the axe over public services since the coalition government came to power.


After reviewing Vietnam ’s project earlier this year, CIMA and OECD believe that other countries could learn from Vietnam in this field.


It said that one of the key factors of Vietnam ’s success is having a strong coordinating unit at the centre of Government, with backing from leading politicians./.