Hanoi (VNA) – The NationalAssembly (NA) Standing Committee held a national conference in Hanoi on March25 to review the performance of the People’s Councils of provinces andcentrally-run cities nationwide in 2023 and launch tasks for this year.

The event also saw the presence of Politburo members: NAChairman Vuong Dinh Hue; Permanent member of the Party Central Committee’sSecretariat and Chairwoman of the Party Central Committee’s Organisation CommissionTruong Thi Mai; and Permanent NA Vice Chairman Tran Thanh Man, among others.

Opening the conference, PermanentVice Chairman of the NA Tran Thanh Man said over more than half of the 2021 -2026 tenure, the NA and the NA Standing Committee have carried out a number ofreforms and devised measures for better supervising and directing activities of the People’s Councils, from perfecting the legal foundation to increasingactivities that connect the NA, its Standing Committee, and their agencies with the provincial-level People’s Councils.

The People's Councils have also exertedefforts to boost reforms and creativity during the performance of tasks. Closelyfollowing the Party’s guidelines and the State’s policies and laws, they haveissued resolutions, mechanisms, and policies meeting demand in theirlocalities, thereby substantially contributing to the realisation of local andnational socio-economic development, defence, security, and external affairstargets, he continued.

The organisation of the annual conference was an occasion for the NA and its Standing Committee to enhance the momentumfor reform at local people-elected bodies, Man added.

However, the official also pointedout several shortcomings, elaborating that the quality of meetings of somePeople’s Councils remains limited. Some have yet to take strong or effectiveenough measures for fully handling post-supervision opinions.

The settlement and reply to voters’opinions and petitions are still slow in some provinces and cities. Besides, some people's councils haven’t released digital transformation and IT application directions onschedule while agencies’ coordination is still lax.

Man described 2024 as a year of “acceleration” critical to theimplementation of the resolutions of the 13th National Party Congressand all-level Party congresses, as well as to the preparation for all-levelParty congresses ahead of the 14th National Party Congress. The year isalso important to the preparation for the election of deputies to the 16th-tenureNA and all-level People’s Councils in the 2026 - 2031 tenure.

Given this, the entire politicalsystem needs to act in line with the spirit of Party General Secretary NguyenPhu Trong’s writing issued on the occasion of the Party’s 94th anniversary earlier this year. These writings show high determination, greatefforts, drastic action, dynamism, and creativity, tackle bottlenecks andproblems in a timely manner, bring into play democracy in tandem withsustaining discipline, ensure proper coordination in leadership, management,and governance, pay due attention to quality and effectiveness in reality, andmake breakthroughs for development, Man remarked./.