Dong Nai improves governance indicators through substantive reforms

The 2025 results of the Public Administration Reform Index (PAR INDEX) and the Satisfaction Index of Public Administrative Services (SIPAS) placed Dong Nai among the country’s top-performing localities. Beyond the improved rankings, the results reflect tangible progress in public administration reform, administrative procedure simplification, and the quality of services delivered to citizens and businesses.

Officials at the Dong Nai City Public Administrative Service Center assist residents in completing administrative procedures.

As the two-tier local government model has officially come into operation, these achievements further underscore the locality’s efforts to build a service-oriented administration, with citizen and business satisfaction serving as a key measure of government performance.

Marked improvements in service quality

According to Vice Chairwoman of the City People’s Committee Nguyen Thi Hoang, administrative reform has long been regarded as a key driver of socio-economic development. In 2025, Dong Nai ranked third among the country’s 34 provinces and centrally-run cities in both PAR INDEX and SIPAS. The results reflect positive changes in institutional reform, the simplification of administrative procedures, digital transformation, and the development of a citizen- and business-centered administration.

After completing administrative procedures at the city’s Public Administrative Service Center, Nguyen Thi Ha, a resident of Long Binh ward, said the facility had become increasingly modern and user-friendly.

“Officials provided detailed guidance on the required documents, while procedures were publicly displayed and easy to follow. Their attitude was courteous, and the processing of applications was much more convenient than before,” she said.

Officials at the Dong Nai Public Administrative Service Center assist residents in completing administrative procedures.

Such first-hand experiences offer perhaps the clearest measure of the quality of public services. This is also the core purpose of SIPAS. While PAR INDEX measures the implementation of administrative reform tasks, SIPAS reflects how citizens perceive and evaluate those reform efforts.

Ha Thanh Tung, Deputy Director of the Department of Home Affairs (DoHA), said that with the implementation of the two-tier local government model, Dong Nai has identified administrative reform as a key criterion for assessing the effectiveness of government operations.

In 2024, before the reorganization of administrative units, Dong Nai ranked eighth out of 63 provinces and cities in the PAR INDEX, while it ranked only 45th nationwide in SIPAS. After clearly identifying both its achievements and limitations, the city implemented a series of coordinated measures, including issuing administrative reform programs and plans, linking task performance results with the evaluation of Party organizations, agencies, units, cadres, and civil servants, and strengthening inspections and supervision at the grassroots level to resolve emerging difficulties and obstacles promptly.

According to Tung, regular reviews of bottlenecks in administrative procedures, greater accountability among agency heads, and a stronger focus on addressing public concerns have led to clear improvements in service quality. These were also among the key factors helping Dong Nai rise into the group of localities leading the country in both PAR INDEX and SIPAS in 2025.

Citizen satisfaction remains the ultimate benchmark

The improvement in governance indicators demonstrates that reform efforts are increasingly being translated into concrete outcomes. However, according to Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Nguyen Van Hoi, such indicators are meaningful only when they accurately reflect the quality of services provided to citizens and businesses.

Speaking at a recent workshop on improving the effectiveness of SIPAS and PAR INDEX at the local level, Hoi noted that while many ministries, agencies, and localities have performed well, some still fall short of public expectations. Certain administrative procedures remain cumbersome, requiring citizens to make multiple visits to complete applications. In some cases, state agencies continue to request documents and information that are already available in government databases.

According to the Deputy Minister, these shortcomings demonstrate that administrative reform is not merely a matter of procedures or institutions. It is also closely tied to the quality of public service delivery and the sense of responsibility demonstrated by civil servants. “Where procedures have been improved, but awareness, responsibility, and working methods have not changed accordingly, citizens are unlikely to fully experience the benefits of reform,” he said.

Hoi stressed that a key priority is to accelerate digital transformation while completing and integrating sector-specific databases. Without comprehensive, interconnected, and shared databases, efforts to simplify administrative procedures and improve public services will continue to face significant challenges.

At the same time, enhancing the capacity, responsibility, and professional ethics of civil servants remains a critical task. Regardless of how many procedures are streamlined or technology is applied, citizens and businesses will not fully benefit from administrative reform unless the service mindset of public officials also changes.

The ultimate goal of administrative reform is to enhance the satisfaction of citizens and businesses while modernizing public administration and governance systems at both local and national levels. Therefore, improving governance indicators is not an end in itself but rather part of an ongoing process to enhance service quality.

Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Nguyen Van Hoi

In Dong Nai, Deputy Director of the DoHA, Ha Thanh Tung, affirmed that administrative reform will remain a central task in the development of the two-tier local government model. The city is currently drafting an administrative reform project focusing on procedural reform, digital government, and e-government development, in line with Resolution No. 05 of the City Party Committee on the city’s special 500-day emulation campaign. In the coming period, Dong Nai will continue strengthening inspections and supervision of public service performance, assessing the accountability of agencies, units, and localities in implementing administrative reform tasks, and addressing difficulties arising during the operation of the two-tier local government model.

From ranking 45th nationwide in SIPAS to joining the country’s leading group today, Dong Nai has demonstrated that improvements in governance indicators cannot be achieved through cosmetic changes alone. The figures themselves are meaningful only when they translate into better experiences for citizens and businesses whenever they interact with public administrative services. Ultimately, that is the clearest measure of the success of administrative reform.

By H.Thao – Translated by M.Nguyet, Minho