Regulations ensuring rigor and feasibility in implementing data-driven administrative procedure simplification

Reporting at the meeting, Deputy Chief of the Office of the Ministry of Justice Le Thai Phuong stated that the Ministry of Justice has taken the lead and coordinated with relevant ministries and sectors in drafting a Government Resolution providing for the handling of difficulties and obstacles in data-based administrative procedure simplification under Resolution No. 206/2025/QH15 of the National Assembly on special mechanisms for addressing difficulties and obstacles arising from legal regulations.

The draft Resolution has been reviewed and approved by the Standing Committee of the Party Committee of the Ministry of Justice before being circulated for comments from ministries and sectors. The Ministry of Justice has also organized an appraisal meeting for the draft Resolution and is continuing to review and incorporate comments to ensure its submission to the Government before November 15.

Regarding the development of the overall Report on the implementation of administrative procedure reduction and simplification (the Report), based on submissions from ministries and sectors, the Ministry of Justice has prepared a draft Report and circulated it for comments from ministries and ministerial-level agencies. Deputy Minister of Justice Nguyen Thanh Tinh — Deputy Head of the Task Force — has also chaired meetings and worked with 16 ministries and sectors to reach consensus on the results of reviewing, reducing, and simplifying administrative procedures based on data, as well as on the draft Resolution.

At the meeting, members of the Task Force focused on discussing several contents in the draft Resolution, including the provision that, in cases where information requested to be replaced or retrieved from databases (DBs) cannot be accessed, or the retrieved information is incomplete and not sufficiently accurate, the competent agency or person receiving and handling administrative procedures may request individuals or organizations to provide documents to resolve the administrative procedures and shall be responsible for their request.

Considering that this provision could be abused to require citizens to provide paper documents when carrying out administrative procedures, opinions have proposed several options to aim for an appropriate and specific regulation, so as to both prevent abuse that directly affects citizens’ implementation of administrative procedures and ensure feasibility and effectiveness in implementation, guaranteeing that administrative procedures for organizations and individuals are always smoothly processed without obstruction.

In addition, members of the Task Force also discussed the regulations on the timeline for completing databases (DBs) to serve the implementation of data-based administrative procedure reduction and simplification. Affirming that the “output” of administrative procedures is the “input” of the DBs, many opinions emphasized the need for a regulation requiring officers, when detecting errors in the DBs, to update the system to support the development of databases that meet the requirements of “accurate – complete – clean – live – consistent – shared use”.

Speaking at the meeting, Deputy Minister of Public Security Nguyen Van Long emphasized that the “maturation” of data will lead ministries and sectors to continue reviewing and restructuring their administrative procedures. Therefore, it is necessary to stipulate that ministries and sectors must immediately publish databases that are sufficiently exploitable to replace the data currently requested from organizations and individuals during the implementation of administrative procedures.

At the same time, regulations are needed on monitoring, urging, and the deadlines for ministries and sectors to complete the restructuring of administrative procedures once the related databases are finalized; and to stipulate that the task of reviewing and restructuring administrative procedures is a regular, continuous duty linked to data governance to allow for inspection and follow-up.

Director of the Department of Administrative Reform (Ministry of Home Affairs) Pham Minh Hung assessed that the implementation of the Resolution will fundamentally innovate the process of handling administrative procedures for citizens. Emphasizing the importance of the feasibility of the regulations, Mr. Pham Minh Hung proposed having unified provisions on the process and the use of data in handling administrative procedures to ensure consistency across ministries and sectors during implementation.

Speaking at the meeting, Deputy Minister of Justice Nguyen Thanh Tinh emphasized the principle “reduce administrative procedure file components in accordance with available data” to ensure the feasibility of the Resolution. At the same time, the Deputy Minister also clarified the spirit that while perfection cannot be demanded, “without moving, you cannot arrive”; in the initial implementation period, there may be cases where citizens are required to provide paper documents.

Concluding the meeting, Minister of Justice Nguyen Hai Ninh emphasized that the issuance of the Resolution is necessary to provide a legal basis for implementing data-based administrative procedure simplification.

Highlighting that the issuance of the Resolution will have a very broad impact on the implementation of administrative procedures for citizens and businesses, as well as on the responsibilities of officers handling administrative procedures, he stressed the need for thorough review and a very high level of consensus among ministries and agencies.

In that spirit, the Minister requested ministries and agencies to continue close coordination to finalize the draft Resolution with the highest quality. According to the Minister, the provisions in the draft Resolution must be rigorous, coherent, and consistent in interpretation to facilitate its implementation.