The Government Office and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) on Tuesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding under which the US will assist Viet Nam in strengthening E-government capacity. 

At the signing ceremony. Photo: VGP

Present at the signing ceremony include Minister-Chairman of the Government Office Mai Tien Dung, US Ambassador to Viet Nam Daniel J. Kritenbrink, and USAID Acting Viet Nam Mission Director Bradley Bessire.

Through this MoU, the USAID will help the Government Office accelerate administrative reforms, enhance national inter-agency coordination and transparency, and further develop its e-government platform - the National Public Service Portal - which will improve access to information, benefitting both citizens and businesses.

For his part, Ambassador Kritenbrink said the Viet Nam e-government capacity building MoU signed today demonstrates continued close cooperation between the United States and Viet Nam and reinforces the U.S. Government’s commitment to support Viet Nam’s efforts in modernizing public administration, administrative reform, and e-government development.

USAID assistance towards this capacity building effort has four main components: (i) Updating implementing regulations related to online public service delivery and processing; (ii) Organizational change management to improve service delivery and communications plans to strengthen the effectiveness of the National Public Service Portal; (iii) Improving business processes, interface design, and user experience on the National Public Service Portal; and (iv) Business process re-engineering support for one-stop shops, focusing on the digitalization of administrative procedure and access to digitized results via the National Public Service Portal.

Addressing the event, Minister-Chairman of the Government Office Mai Tien Dung said the MoU reflects both side’s efforts and strong commitments in e-government development and administrative procedures reform in Viet Nam.

Dung expressed his hope for continued support from the US Embassy and the USAID in realizing USAID projects and programs in Viet Nam in general and this MoU in particularly.

Since 2016, the Government has cut 3,893 out of 6,191 business conditions and 6,776 out of 9,926 categories of goods subject to specialized inspection in an effort to facilitate business activities, according to Dung.

Since its inception 10 months ago, nearly 76.7 million turns of people have accessed the National Public Service Portal while more than 20 million documents have synced over 458,000 documents processed online, Dung added.

The above figures came as result of combined efforts of Vietnamese ministries, agencies and localities and international friends in general and the US Embassy and USAID in particular, he stressed./.