Reform and WTO-entry lead drive for national development
Vietnamese and foreign experts discuss the country’s continuing renewal process and economic development with Thoi bao Kinh te Vietnam (Vietnam Economic Times)

Vision, policy, justice: the right formula for a strong government
Dr Vo Tri Thanh of the Central Economic Research and Management Institute, spoke with Tuoi Tre cuoi tuan (Youth Weekend) magazine about building a healthy government

Modern cities require suitable system of urban administration
Dr Nguyen Minh Hoa, director of the Community and Urban Development Research Centre, spoke to Lao Dong (Labour) newspaper about the process of building a modern urban administration.

Mechanism required to enforce and safeguard the Constitution
National Assembly External Relations Committee chairman Vu Mao discusses the need to establish an authority to protect and enforce the Constitution with Tuoi Tre Chu Nhat (Youth Sunday) magazine.

Decision on civil servant admission forged
To become state civil servants, newly graduated candidates and contractual employees in state agencies all must pass the very stiff civil service examinations.
However, in Quang Trach District, Quang Binh central Province, some people forged decisions on the employment of civil servants.

Recommendations on reforming Vietnamese Customs
In the administrative reform process, the organisation system of the country’s customs has gradually been adjusted to suit with the demand of each period. The Ministry of Finance issued Decision No 810/QD-BTC dated March 16, 2004 on reforming and modernising the customs service in the 2004-2006 period to meet the international standards on supply chain. This is a very realistic and necessary guideline. However, beside the positive points, there remain issues in the organisation system of the country’s customs presently.

Civil servants’ studies to serve short-term purposes
With regard of the implementation of the Law on Saving and Anti-wastage, in a session of the recent Government Conference, prime minister Phan Van Khai strongly criticized the wastages in the system of state officials and civil servants via studies. How is this practice? In a recent interview, Tran Xuan Gia, head of the prime minister research committee talked about this matter. Excerpts:

Surveillance of people
Although tabled over the past several years, Vietnam’s administrative system remains too authoritative, rigid, sluggish and complex along with the attitude or habit of “keeping a distance with people as far as possible”, “bothering people” in many state officials and civil servants.

Has the residential registration record reached its sell-by date?
Dr Nguyen Dinh Loc, a member of the National Assembly's Law Committee and a former Minister of Justice, spoke to Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper about inequities in the residential registration record system.

Need to have working culture
There were a lot of people in a waiting room of the motorbike-registration office in that day. The room was very narrow and most of waiters was woman, but a lot of men smoke and smoke. They made the room stuffy more and more, and made women to pull a wry face and stop their noses. A cashier of the office was a middle-age man, who contributed actively to pour the smoke into the room with other men, writing the bill while burning cigarettes. And I took notice of he dropping ash on the floor easily.