Editor's note: General Secretary To Lam and the Central Executive Committee have resolutely carried out a revolution to streamline the political apparatus. Vietnam Weekly publishes a series of articles discussing with experts suggesting solutions for this revolution.
Former Director of the Central Institute for Economic Management Nguyen Dinh Cung talked with Tuan Viet Nam about the "revolution" of streamlining the apparatus and "institutional bottlenecks" that General Secretary To Lam is determined to carry out. Practical actions At present, everyone is expecting a breakthrough and hopes to realize that breakthrough because of the emergence of a new factor, General Secretary To Lam, with a coherent mindset and decisive actions on institutional change. Vietnam is preparing for the Party Congress, so those new development thoughts will be expressed through the Party's guidelines and policies in Document 14. This is the Congress that begins the second term of the socio-economic development strategy term. The General Secretary not only put forward new and different thinking compared to before. He also pointed out and named the prominent issues in reality with the attitude of "looking straight at the truth, telling the truth" - a very different and very practical approach. There are too many points that need to be changed and reformed, and the General Secretary has decided that streamlining the apparatus is the first breakthrough. He has created pressure to change thinking because changing thinking will change actions, introducing new and good policies. Changing thinking comes from the country's reality. He affirmed that institutions are the bottleneck of bottlenecks. Let's imagine driving on a 5-lane highway, then narrowing it to 2 lanes, having many checkpoints, and even being stopped. Cumbersome and complicated laws, regulations, and procedures are creating countless bottlenecks, losing business opportunities, and discouraging investors. Why are laws a bottleneck? The General Secretary requires a decisive abandonment of the mindset that if you can't manage it, then ban it. We are still at risk of falling behind. With an estimated growth rate of 7% this year and next year, the average GDP in the 5-year period of 2021-2025 will only reach 5.9%, slightly lower than the 6% of the previous period. With such a growth rate, we will not achieve the goal of becoming a prosperous high-income country by 2030 and 2045. To achieve the target according to the Resolution, we must continuously grow at 7-7.5% over the next two decades.

Dr. Nguyen Dinh Cung: Everyone is expecting a breakthrough because of the appearance of a new factor, General Secretary To Lam, with a coherent mindset and decisive actions in institutional change. Photo: VietNamNet

Looking back at history, the growth trend is going down. In the 40 years of Doi Moi, the first 10 years of growth were 7.6%, the next decade was 6.6%, the third decade was 6.3% and the fourth decade decreased by 6%. This is very alarming because the growth trend is not going up. Thus, it is clear that to achieve the goal of prosperity, there must be a huge change, the pressure for reform is very heavy and the determination must be very high. The bottlenecks that need to be removed To fix institutional bottlenecks, I would like to note some points that require a change in thinking: Regarding institutions, we must resolutely abandon the mindset of banning if we cannot manage, and resolutely change the laws issued just for management. Instead, laws must promote development, economic laws must only focus on encouraging, creating opportunities, promoting and meeting development requirements. We must change the direction of designing and implementing laws according to goals rather than following processes as before. From now on, when switching to legal thinking, it is necessary to set development goals for the best development of people and businesses. Decentralization must be clearly directed towards "local decision, local action, local responsibility". Private enterprises must be the main driving force, must be upgraded from "important driving force". Economic development needs to rely on the people, and growth needs to rely on the people. This economic sector so far only accounts for a mere 10% of GDP, which is very small. This is a potential area for the country to develop. A different mindset is needed . Thus, in terms of institutions, to create new and effective ways of doing things, there must be a different mindset. In addition to streamlining the apparatus, it is necessary to continue streamlining the legal system, which means removing many laws, especially intermediate laws, not just removing some regulations to aim for specific goals. With this new mindset, the legal system needs to be redesigned. In the next 2-3 years, focus on removing old laws, not issuing new ones. Here, there needs to be a team of experts independent of the ministries. Removing institutional bottlenecks is really difficult, but if done, it will be a breakthrough because it will create the motivation to mobilize resources, strength, and initiatives of the entire nation. The relatively large "wounds" in the apparatus and the business community will be healed, and trust will be created. Regarding the streamlining of the apparatus that everyone supports, however, there are two things that I think need to be noted. First, ensure that there is no shortage of research agencies, policy reviewers, and strategic planners to advise the leaders. Many times, success or failure lies in the research, forecasting, and advisory stages. Second, we must avoid the situation where the apparatus is sluggish and does nothing. We must choose ministers who are really enthusiastic and determined to promote the apparatus. The team of entrepreneurs and scientists and technologists is decisive. If we want the country to rise up, have high economic growth and an independent and self-reliant economy, we must develop the team of Vietnamese entrepreneurs and the team of scientific and technological researchers. They are organically linked and inseparable. Without technology, without the capacity to receive technology transfer and without a strong private enterprise force, there cannot be an independent and self-reliant economy. I want to emphasize this. Unfortunately, the private economic sector is losing numbers, momentum and aspirations, and slowing down its growth. In recent years, not only has the number of enterprises withdrawn from the market increased, but the rate of new enterprise establishment is also very low. The market entry/exit ratio is almost 1/1. The targets of 1.5 million enterprises by 2020 and 2 million enterprises by 2025 have not come true. Institutional reform cannot be separated from the development of domestic business forces, especially private enterprises. We must change both attitudes and actions to regain the trust of the private economic sector. When we want to encourage, facilitate, and accompany, we need to consider many supporting regulations and conditions. Typically, we should amend the regulations on postponing the exit of tax-indebted businessmen. Scientific research needs to be flexible, it cannot be rigidly applied according to procedures. For example, there is a scientific topic that is only evaluated based on that title, when changing a word in the title, or moving item A to B, we must also go to the council for permission. To develop science and technology, we must create an environment and conditions for talented people to work and contribute. These things can only be done through institutional innovation as General Secretary To Lam said. Management is oriented towards work results, not just management according to procedures, thereby creating an environment for talented people to work. Then there will be no land and opportunity for incompetent people.

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