Hai Phong City has recently released a report on the implementation of the Government's Decree No. 63/2010/ND-CP regarding administrative procedure control for the period following the administrative boundary merger, spanning from July 1, 2025, to March 14, 2026. This is more than a routine professional report; it serves as a testament to the efforts of the city government in building a modern, service-oriented administration that operates independently of administrative boundaries amidst a strong digital transformation.
New Stature and Determination from the Leadership.
Following the merger of the former Hai Phong city and the former Hai Dương province on July 1, 2025, the new Hai Phong possesses an impressive scale with a natural area of over 3,194 km² and a population of nearly 4.7 million people. This massive population scale and large geographical area pose a giant challenge for state management, particularly in maintaining the smooth flow of administrative procedures so as not to disrupt the lives of residents or business operations. From the preparation phase, city leaders identified administrative procedure control as a central political task. Results and experiences from the two previous localities were proactively inherited. The city reviewed and adjusted internal processes and clearly defined authority between levels to enhance service efficiency and ensure consistency in advising and implementing regulations on administrative procedures.
Public Administration Service Center Model: The Nucleus of Change.
One of the brightest highlights of the reform is the operation of the Public Administration Service Center model at all levels according to Decree No. 118/2025/ND-CP. The city-level center is staffed with 17 personnel, working at two modern reception points located on Hoang Dieu and Ton Duc Thang streets. Notably, the city has established a system of 114 commune-level Public Administration Service Centers. At these locations, headquarters addresses, hotline numbers, and lists of administrative procedures are fully disclosed to create the most favorable conditions for individuals and organizations to access them. Coordination between the government and units such as the City Post Office and Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade has helped the circulation of documents, fee and charge collection, and result returns to be carried out professionally, significantly reducing pressure on civil servants at the grassroots level.
Telling Numbers: Time Reduction and Strong Digitization.
As of March 2026, the total number of administrative procedures under the city's jurisdiction is 2,210. The city has issued 131 decisions announcing a list of 1,951 administrative procedures and has publicly listed 100% of these procedures on the National Database and electronic information portals. Results of reviewing and simplifying administrative procedures have achieved impressive figures, including the cutting of processing times for 1,996 procedures. Among them, 1,949 procedures had their processing times reduced by 50% or more.
Efficiency was further enhanced through simplification plans for 41 administrative procedures in key areas such as Agriculture, Finance, Health, Justice, Industry and Trade, and Construction. Regarding document resolution results during the reporting period, departments, boards, and sectors received more than 365,000 sets of documents, with a very high rate of on-time and early resolution involving over 308,000 sets. At the commune level, the numbers are even more impressive, with 1.76 million sets of documents received and over 1.74 million sets resolved. Notably, the city implemented the reception and return of results independent of administrative boundaries for 1,201 sets of documents at 55 commune and ward-level units.
Pioneering in Digital Transformation and Online Public Services.
Hai Phong is asserting its leading position in implementing online public services. By the end of 2025, the city had integrated 2,220 administrative procedures onto the National Public Service Portal, reaching a rate of 100%. Of these, 1,122 services are provided in the form of full-process online services. The digitization of documents and administrative procedure results has become a mandatory process. The rate of digitized results in Hai Phong reached 94.69%, with more than 584,000 sets of documents completed during the reporting period. The online payment system also recorded outstanding growth, with a successful transaction rate of over 90%. These efforts have allowed Hai Phong to maintain its position in the group of national leaders for the Public Administration Reform Index (PAR Index), ranking 1st in 2023, 2nd in 2024, and ranking 1st in 2025.
Listening to Citizens and the Government's Receptiveness.
Not focusing solely on professional statistics, Hai Phong places special importance on citizen satisfaction. During the reporting period, the city received 1,707 pieces of feedback and recommendations regarding administrative regulations and behaviors. Governments at all levels settled 1,671 cases, achieving a 100% public response rate online. The staff working at the Public Administration Service Centers are highly regarded for their sense of responsibility and dedicated guidance and explanations provided to people and businesses.
Barriers to Overcome and Future Vision.
Despite many achievements, Hai Phong also frankly pointed out existing bottlenecks. Connections between the information systems of central ministries and sectors and the locality are sometimes difficult, creating pressure for implementing officials. Defining processing times as "days" instead of "working days" in legal documents creates significant pressure for the locality, especially during long holidays. IT human resources at some units are still lacking and unevenly distributed.
Based on this reality, Hai Phong has made important recommendations to the Ministry of Justice and the Government. These include the early issuance of a Decree to replace Decree 63/2010/ND-CP to fit the context of promoting digital transformation and operating Public Administration Service Centers. There needs to be a unified regulation on calculating processing times as "working days" instead of "days" to ensure feasibility. Maintaining the stability of the Public Administration Service Center model at all levels is necessary to ensure inheritance and long-term effectiveness.
With these results, Hai Phong is proving that the merger of administrative boundaries is not a barrier but an opportunity for breakthroughs and restructuring the administration toward a more modern direction. The satisfaction of nearly 5 million residents is the most accurate measure of the success of administrative procedure control in the Port City. In the future, with the completion of institutions and technological infrastructure, Hai Phong is confident it will continue to be a "lighthouse" leading the country's administrative reform.
Vũ Nhàn.