Over the recent past, meetings and dialogues between leaders of Party committees and administrations and local residents have become regular activities, helping Party committees and administrations at all levels to grasp issues of public concern and better perform their tasks.

Meetings and dialogues have become increasingly substantive and effective. Every year, all-level Party committees and administrations make plans and select issues and problems of public concern to focus meetings and dialogues on, thereby helping Party committees and administrations learn about people’s feedback and opinions about the local socio-economic development situation, along with management and governance shortcomings in order to make appropriate adjustments. The province has also boosted the exercise of grassroots democracy to deal with problems, petitions, and legal and legitimate aspirations of people right from the grassroots level.

During the first nine months of 2023, authorities received 102 petitions and letters of complaints, denunciations, and feedback from citizens and transferred them to relevant agencies for settlement. As many as 456 meetings and workshops were held, receiving 20,144 opinions from organisations and individuals.

Meetings and dialogues have helped enhance people’s consensus and trust in all-level Party committees and administrations’ leadership, management, and governance, as well as officials, civil servants, and public employees’ performance of tasks.

In the time ahead, to improve the quality of those meetings and dialogues, Hoa Binh will step up the dissemination of the Party Central Committee and the provincial Party Committee’s directions over Party committee leaders’ responsibility towards meetings and dialogues with the public, and the settlement of people’s feedback and opinions among all-level Party committees, administrations, Vietnam Fatherland Front (VFF) committees, socio-political organisations, officials, civil servants, Party members, and people from all social strata. It will also promote the role of leaders of all-level Party committees, administrations, agencies, and units in the adherence to the rules on meetings and dialogues.

Apart from holding periodic dialogues, unplanned ones will also be organised to handle new issues in a timely manner right at the grassroots level. Administrations at all levels will work to properly practice grassroots diplomacy, ensure the openness and transparency of management and governance activities, and direct the proper settlement of issues after those meetings and dialogues. The role of all-level VFF committees and socio-political organisations in holding meetings and dialogues will be boosted. Besides, coordination among agencies in organising the events and receiving public opinions will also be strengthened.

Bui Van Khanh, Vice Secretary of the provincial Party Committee and Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee, emphasised that leaders of all-level Party committees, administrations, departments, and sectors need to increase direct dialogues with the public to receive opinions and proposals in a timely manner so as to devise concrete measures for improving leadership and governance quality.

In addition, people should also actively learn about legal regulations to improve their knowledge to assist state agencies in implementing policies and solving issues and bottlenecks, he noted.