The Ho Chi Minh City government has urged grassroots authorities to bemore active in pursuing administrative reforms, saying people'ssatisfaction with administrators is not increasing fast enough.

Ata December 2 meeting with leaders of the city's 322 wards, 24districts, and 18 departments and sectors, Le Hoang Quan, Chairman ofPeople's Committee and head of the HCM City Administrative ReformSteering Committee, urged them to speed up reforms.

The reforms are vital for improving the efficiency of the administration and ensuring socio-economic development, he said.

TruongVan Lam, Director of the city's Department of Home Affairs, quoted asurvey done by the HCM City Institute for Development Studies as sayingthat while there is a rise in confidence in administrators, it has beenslow.

Quan said the city's economic growth is expected to be 9.5 percent this year, higher than last year's 9.3 percent.

"Afterthe meeting to review the city's economy after 11 months this year, wewill see that if we strengthen administrative reforms, the growth ratewill be much higher."

Companies have contributed greatly togrowth, and customs and tax reforms have helped them reduce the timetaken for procedures, he said.

But he blamed somedepartments and agencies for not performing their tasks of serving thepeople well and ensuring the city's socio-economic development.

Themeeting heard from the Department of Home Affairs, however, that mostprogrammes and targets for administrative reform this year have beencompleted.

According to the department, the task ofassessing legal documents and administrative procedures has been doneregularly, helping improve administrative efficiency.

Through this process, the city has scrapped 10 administrative procedures out of 2,182 this year.

Accordingto the department, many sectors have started to make use of informationtechnology to speed up administrative reform.

Asingle-door policy has been adopted by all wards, districts,departments, and sectors to improve administrative services for bothindividuals and companies.

The Department of Information and Communication has upgraded the IT infrastructure at government offices in every district.

The electronic system with 13,707 electronic mail boxes is being put into good use at government offices, according to report.

Atthe meeting, directions on strengthening administrative reform wereannounced. A seven-page document requires heads of departments,districts, and other offices to monitor their subordinates and beaccountable if reforms are tardy.-VNA