On April 16, Party Central Committee member, Deputy Secretary of the Hanoi Party Committee and Chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee Vu Dai Thang chaired a meeting with leaders of departments, agencies and commune and ward authorities on administrative reform, administrative procedure control, implementation of procedures and decentralization and delegation across the city.

15 administrative procedures cut

Reporting at the meeting, Director of the Hanoi Department of Home Affairs Nguyen Minh Long said that since the beginning of 2026, Hanoi has implemented administrative reform in a comprehensive and coordinated manner in line with resolutions and programs of the central government and the city, aimed at building a modern, transparent and efficient administration.

The city identifies administrative reform as a key political task and a driver of growth, placing citizens and businesses at the center of service delivery.

Many important directives have been issued, guiding governance innovation toward modernization and integration, shifting from a management mindset to one focused on facilitation and service, streamlining the apparatus, promoting decentralization and applying digital data and artificial intelligence in governance.

Hanoi has issued 56 legal documents in compliance with procedures, strengthened review, inspection and data updates. Legal dissemination and education have been emphasized, especially for content directly affecting citizens and businesses and the draft revised Capital Law.

In administrative procedure reform, the city has approved simplification of 15 procedures, reducing processing time by an average of 1.26 days per application and announced 566 internal procedures, promoting a shift from manual management to modern governance.

Currently, the city has 2,075 administrative procedures, of which more than 53.6% are fully available as online public services. About 52.5% have been restructured for online processing, focusing on high-frequency procedures.

Notably, 100% of procedures are implemented without dependence on administrative boundaries. The satisfaction rate of citizens reaches nearly 99%, while the digitization index of records has improved significantly, placing Hanoi among the leading localities nationwide.

Regarding organizational structure, the city continues to streamline and improve operational effectiveness. The total staffing for 2026 is 13,555, including reserves for organizational adjustments.

Decentralization and delegation have been strengthened, with 143 tasks assigned to departments and 156 to commune-level authorities. A total of 668 procedures have been delegated, shortening processing time by three to five days, with an on-time rate of 95.77%.

Alongside these achievements, the report also pointed out limitations, such as inconsistent organization at the grassroots level, incomplete information technology systems, limited human resources at the commune level, insufficient attention to citizen satisfaction surveys in some units and weak accountability in certain cases.

For the second half of April and the remaining eight months of the year, the city will focus on 12 key task groups.

Specifically, the city will continue to strengthen direction and administration of administrative reform in line with the 2026 theme "Discipline and professionalism, breakthrough and innovation, efficiency and sustainability," while fully implementing plans for 2026 and the 2026 to 2030 period.

The city will also intensify review and simplification of procedures, improve institutions and upgrade the Public Service Portal and administrative procedure processing systems.

Reorganizing service points toward a streamlined model

Reporting at the meeting, Deputy Director in charge of the Hanoi Public Administrative Service Center Phan Van Phuc said that as of April 15, according to Index 766 on the National Public Service Portal, Hanoi scored 96.68 points, ranking third out of 34 provinces and cities, compared with 60th out of 63 in 2024 and 24th out of 34 in 2025.

After more than three months of implementing the single tier public administration model with all digital service support points under the center, results show clear improvement, especially in the digitization of administrative procedures.

Phuc noted that the rate of issuing electronic results reached 97.80%, while the digitization rate of records and outcomes reached 97.75%, indicating that implementation has become substantive and stable on a large scale.

Achieving the top national ranking in record digitization and improving from 60th to third place demonstrates the effectiveness of the single-tier model, reflecting changes in both technical systems and operational methods.

Regarding decentralization and delegation, as of April 15, 2026, the city has delegated 668 procedures through 11 different forms and proposed expanding decentralization for 140 additional procedures.

Since the beginning of the year, delegated procedures from the city to departments have processed 9,948 applications, saving more than VND2.32 billion ($88,090) in social costs.

At the commune level, 121,688 applications have been processed, saving about VND30.18 billion ($1.14 million). In total, decentralization and delegation have saved approximately VND32.5 billion ($1.23 million) in more than 3.5 months.

Processing time has been reduced by three to five days, with an on-time and early completion rate of 95.77%, an increase of 1.52% compared to before decentralization.

Some sectors have seen clear improvements, such as land procedures reduced by 15 to 30%, household business registration shortened by one to two days and individual housing construction permits reduced by three to five days.

In the coming period, the Hanoi Public Administrative Service Center will reorganize service points toward a streamlined and efficient model, while promoting fully online public services, aiming for 80% by mid-2026 and 95% by the end of the year.

At the same time, the center will implement procedures without administrative boundary dependence and enhance data digitization and reuse based on the principle of providing data once and using it multiple times.

At the meeting, representatives of commune and ward authorities expressed strong agreement with the reports from the Hanoi Department of Home Affairs and the Public Administrative Service Center.

They affirmed that administrative reform, decentralization and delegation have been implemented comprehensively and effectively, basically meeting the needs of citizens and businesses.

At the same time, local authorities proposed that the city continue improving integration between the National Public Service Portal and systems of ministries and agencies to better facilitate procedures, especially as support demand from the private sector increases.

Localities also candidly pointed out challenges, notably inconsistent IT infrastructure, fragmented software systems requiring officials to use multiple platforms, affecting efficiency and limited data connectivity among agencies.

Implementing the principle of one level without intermediaries

Concluding the meeting, Chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee Vu Dai Thang emphasized that administrative reform, especially administrative procedure reform, is a key and central task in implementing the Resolution of the 18th Hanoi Party Congress as well as the capital's development programs.

He noted that from the beginning of 2026, the Hanoi Party Committee, the Hanoi People's Council and the Hanoi People's Committee have issued many directives to accelerate administrative reform, considering it a major driver of socio-economic development.

Assessing recent results, Thang acknowledged and praised the efforts of departments, agencies and localities, especially the Hanoi Department of Home Affairs, the Public Administrative Service Center and grassroots authorities.

In the first three months of 2026, administrative reform achieved notable results, particularly in expanding decentralization and delegation, with a large number of procedures transferred to the grassroots level.

To date, the total number of tasks decentralized to the commune level has reached about 900, demonstrating the city's commitment to the principle of local decision-making, local implementation and local accountability.

Thang assessed that local authorities have shown proactiveness and confidence in taking on delegated tasks.

However, he also pointed out limitations, including insufficient IT infrastructure in some areas and shortcomings in staffing and funding at the grassroots level.

Regarding upcoming tasks, Thang requested all units to focus on synchronously implementing administrative reform measures.

He called for urgent completion and synchronization of IT systems, especially the development of a shared city data center as a foundation for effective online public services and interconnection with national systems.

At the same time, he emphasized continued decentralization alongside ensuring necessary conditions such as human resources, finance and facilities and strengthening inspection and accountability.

In the land sector, he required reviewing and reorganizing the land registration office model in line with the two-tier government structure, ensuring streamlining without creating intermediaries.

Regarding the Public Administrative Service Center model, he requested adjustments toward a streamlined and effective structure in line with the principle of one level without intermediaries.

He stressed that citizens and businesses should only need to go to the commune level to complete all administrative procedures, with restructuring centered on convenience for people.

The Chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee requested agencies and units to urgently develop plans and roadmaps to implement these tasks, ensuring that administrative reform becomes substantive, creates clear improvements and contributes to the capital's socio-economic development.