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NATIONAL ACADEMY OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
NGUYEN DUC QUYEN

REGULATION IMPACT ASSESSENT
OF PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT

Specialisation: Public Management
Code: 9.34.04.03

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF
PHD THESIS IN PUBILC ADMINISTRATION

HANOI, 2020


This thesis was completed at National Academy of Public
Administration
Supervisors:
1. Prof., Dr. Nguyen Van Tham
2. Dr. Ha Quang Thanh

Reviewers 1: ………………………………………………
Reviewers 2: ………………………………………………
This thesis will be defensed at the Academy level thesis
defense committees.

are one of important tool in the management activities of local
governments, including the People's Council and the People's Committee
of the province.
The second comes from the practice of assessing the impact of
legal documents of provincial governments. This has been the cause of
many poor quality documents. During the evaluation process, the
participation of entities outside the Department of Justice and specialized
civil servants is small. The actors participating in the evaluation activities
have not been methodically instructed; not yet fully publicize the results
of the impact assessment report on legislative documents for
organizations and individuals to contribute and supervise; limited
accountability of legal normative agencies is the source of the limitations
in the legal normative impact assessment activities.
These limitations need to be understood in order to provide
appropriate solutions to improve the quality of provincial legal
documents. Not only that, the important issue is that the impact of the text
has not been thoroughly considered and has not created reference
standards for the promulgation of legal documents. In the long run, the
impact assessment of legal documents has been neglected and has not
been given adequate attention by issuing agencies.
Activities of document impact assessment of provincial
governments have not been properly focused so the quality is not high. In
other words, it is imperative and urgent to understand the impact of
legislative documents issued by provincial governments to improve the
quality of the legal normative document.
The third comes from the reality of the study on the impact
assessment of legal documents of provincial governments. In terms of
scientific research, there have not been many studies on impact evaluation
of legal documents issued by local authorities.
At present, there is little research in the field of impact assessment

assessment of legal documents which are still scattered in the context of
research in Vietnam; propose criteria (content) to assess the previous
impact of legislative documents of provincial governments.
In terms of practical significance: The thesis provides an
objective view of the current status of the previous assessment of legal
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documents at this level of government. Thereby making
recommendations to relevant state agencies at the central and local levels
on solutions to improve the quality of pre-legal assessment activities of
provincial governments. Not only that, the thesis is also an essential
reference for teaching about laws and promulgating legal documents in
domestic training institutions.
7. New points of the thesis
Through the research process, the thesis has some new points
below:
Firstly, the thesis does not focus on text impact assessment like
RIA studies, but focuses on analyzing and evaluating the impact
assessment process before legal documents. This is a new research
content that has little research in Vietnam.
Secondly, the thesis has built a theoretical framework to evaluate
the impact assessment process before legal documents. This theoretical
framework both helps the thesis analyze and assess the status of this
activity, while bringing new values to the development of RIA
implementation standards of provincial governments.
Thirdly, the thesis also mentioned a very new issue of the
implementation of impact assessment before legal documents of
provincial governments, which is the control of evaluation activities.
This is new content, little research in Vietnam. The thesis has presented

competence to promulgate legal documents. violating laws of provincial
governments; studies on the promulgation and implementation of legal
documents of provincial governments. In general, the research works on
legal documents of foreign scholars contain a lot of content related to the
analysis of basic skills to develop a legal document, serving mainly in
the field of litigation in developed countries. The application of this
knowledge in Vietnamese conditions requires careful research and
refinement as appropriate.
Group of studies related to impact assessment of legal documents
of provincial governments. The domestic research on impact assessment
of legislative documents is not much and focused mainly on some
important contents such as the concept, role, process, method and actors
of impact assessment. legal documents.
1.2. Evaluate research works and issues that need further
study
After reviewing the scarce capital studies on impact assessment of
legal documents published in Vietnam and in the world related to the
thesis topic, the author of the thesis found that:
- The studies of provincial-level local governments in the state
system help the thesis author clearly recognize the role and position of
provincial-level local governments to understand the operation of issuing
legal documents. laws of this level, as a basis for analyzing the status of
the impact assessment of legislative documents.
- Researches related to the issuance of legal documents provide the
author with the knowledge related to the process of promulgating legal
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documents of provincial governments. This is the basis for the author of
the thesis to understand the impact of the assessment of legal documents

in impact assessment activities before legal documents of provincial
governments. Control of impact assessment of legal documents plays an
important role in making assessment activities scientific, public,
transparent and quality. However, at present in Vietnam, this important
issue has not been adequately studied and researched.
Fourth, another issue that is left out of research is the solution to
improve impact assessment activities before legal documents. The
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studies mentioned in the review focused on either improving the
enactment of local legislative documents or improving RIA with little
regard for the organization of the implementation of the activity itself.
impact assessment of legal documents.
Chapter 2. THEORETICAL BASIS OF THE IMPACT
ASSESSMENT
OF LEGAL LEGAL DOCUMENTS
OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT OF THE PROVINCE
2.1. Legal documents of local governments
2.1.1. Local government concept
Local governments in our country are an integral part of the
unified State government of the people, including local state
representative agencies directly elected by local people (People's
Council). and other State agencies and organizations established on the
basis of these State power representative agencies according to the
provisions of law (People's Committee, specialized agencies under
People's Committee, Standing Committee of People's Council,
committees of People's Council), in order to manage the areas of local
social life, on the basis of the principle of democratic centralism and the
harmonious combination between the interests of the local people and

form, and order. , the procedure prescribed by Law '. Legislative
documents of local governments are the ones that contain legislative
documents promulgated by the People's Councils and the People's
Committees of provinces according to their competence, form, order and
procedures. by law. ' Legislative documents of provincial governments
have both general characteristics of legal documents in general and
specific characteristics.
Some common features of legal documents. Firstly, legal
documents are those promulgated by People's Councils and Provincial
People's Committees according to the prescribed procedures and
procedures. Secondly, legislative documents are documents containing
general codes of conduct, applied to all actorss in society. Thirdly, legal
documents are applied many times in life, applied in all cases when legal
events occur. Fourth, there are many types of legislative documents, each
of which is from the name, content, scope of regulation, legal value,
procedures and procedures for promulgation are all prescribed by law.
Fifth, legal documents are guaranteed by the state by measures such as
propaganda, persuasive education; measures on administrative and
economic organization. Sixthly, legal documents must be issued in the
order prescribed by the Law on promulgation of legal documents. All
documents not issued in the correct order and procedures will have to be
handled according to regulations.
In addition to the above general characteristics, legal documents of
provincial governments have some specific characteristics. Firstly, the
legislative documents of provincial governments reflect local socioeconomic characteristics, based on general regulations of the central
government. Secondly, the legislative documents of a provincial-level
local government take effect within the territorial scope of a provinciallevel administrative unit and have no legal value to another provinciallevel administrative unit.
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- Resolutions of People's Councils of rural districts, urban
districts, towns, provincial cities and centrally run cities (hereinafter
referred collectively to as district level);
- Decisions of the district people's committee;
- Resolutions of People's Councils of communes, wards and
townships (hereinafter referred collectively to as communal level);
- Decision of the People's Committee of the commune
2.2. Impact and impact assessment before legal documents of
provincial governments
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2.2.1. Impact assessment and impact before legal documents of
local governments at provincial level
2.2.1.1. The concept of impact assessment and impact assessment
of legal documents
The impact assessment of legislative documents of provincial
governments is a summary of the steps organized by provincial
governments in a process to serve the expected impact results. policy
options and provide appropriate explanations or recommendations for the
enactment of a local legal document, making an important contribution
to improving the quality of the promulgated legal normative documents
2.2.1.2. The role and significance of impact assessment of
legislative documents
Impact assessment of prescribed legal documents is a mandatory
step right from the stage of proposing law formulation. Impact
assessment helps to anticipate the necessary measures to minimize
negative impacts. In this respect, the legal impact assessment contributes
to the dissemination of policies and laws of the state. Assessing the legal
impact of attracting the participation of the parties, the parties feel their

the method of information collection and the method of conducting
policy impact assessment activities. Methods to carry out policy impact
assessment activities include: qualitative evaluation methods and
quantitative evaluation methods.
2.3. Controlling and assessing the impact of legal documents of
provincial governments
2.3.1. Objectives and concepts of controlling and evaluating
the impact of legal documents of provincial governments
Impact assessment of legislative documents is the scientific
process of examining and correctness of the impact of legal document
impact assessment.
The objective of controlling and evaluating the impact of
legislative documents includes 04 goals. First of all, the control and
evaluation of legislative documents by provincial-level governments to
ensure the science and accuracy of the impact assessment of legal
documents. Second, control and evaluation of legal documents by
provincial governments to control the cost of implementing this activity.
Thirdly, to control and evaluate legislative documents of provincial
governments to ensure the evaluation of legal documents of provincial
governments to ensure evaluation information, assessment content. be
public, transparent, get the public's approval. Fourth, the purpose is to
increase the accountability, and accountability of the agency conducting
the impact assessment of legislative documents on impact assessment
results.
2.3.2. The content of controlling and evaluating the impact of legal
documents of provincial governments
2.3.2.1. Transparency in policy evaluation consultations
There are many ways to ensure the transparency of the assessment such
as publicizing the impact assessment to the public as soon as possible
compared with the time of considering the approval of the competent

assessment of legislative documents. The process of assessing the impact
of legislative documents is detailed in the instruction manual. Experience
from both New Zealand and Australia shows that they value training for
the public officials conducting policy impact assessments. Another
lesson to be learned is that it is necessary to consider and do well the
control of the evaluation of legal documents. The important and very
interesting point is that in Australia there is a legal document control
department called RGU. The effectiveness, effectiveness, and
reasonableness of the cost of conducting legal impact assessments are
also studied, investigated, evaluated and reported annually to all
Australian states. The evaluation, comparison of effectiveness and
quality of policy impact assessment in Australia shows an important
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lesson that it is necessary to control this process in localities to ensure
that the assessment has efficiency and quality.
Chapter 3. CURRENT SITUATION OF ASSESSMENT OF THE
LEGAL IMPLEMENTATION OF LEGAL REGULATIONS OF
LOCAL GOVERNMENT OF THE PROVINCE
3.1. Current practice of assessing the impact of legal documents of
provincial governments in Vietnam at present
3.1.1. Regarding the content of impact assessment of legal documents
of provincial governments
Table 3.1: Contents of previous evaluation of legal documents
Criteria
No
Yes
Number
%

75 29,07
183
70.93
Consistency
193 74,81
65
25.19
Compatibility
with
246 95,35
12
4.65
international
commitments to which
Vietnam is a member.
(Source: Survey)
3.1.2. Regarding the method of evaluating the impact of legal
documents of provincial-level local governments
Regarding the method of collecting information, the survey results are
shown in Table 3.2 as follows:
Table 3 2. Methods of collecting information
Methods of collecting
Số trả lời không
Số trả lời có
information
Interview on the spot
228
88.37%
38
11.63%


159

61.63%

Organisations of
RIA control

99
38.37%
Organisations
of
15 RIA control5.81%
ons of RIA
(Source: Survey)
control
Participants provide comments
Stakeholders
implement
3.1.3. their
Regarding the process of assessing the impact of legislative
independe of provincial governments
documents
Organisations of
Consulation of legal document issuing organisations
The process of assessing the impact of legislative documents is shown in
the following diagram:
Organisations of
Collect opininions from relavant organisations and
243 target population.

final reviewer.
Bảng 3 1. Roles of Department Justice
Roles
Number
Tỷ lệ %
Leading and organizing implementation
168
65.1%
Serving as a consultant, technical and
53
17%
content support
Play the role of criticism and comments
151
58.5%
Acting as the final reviewer
19
7.4%
(Source: Survey)
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In order to further clarify the role of non-governmental
organizations in the evaluation of legal documents, the dissertation raises
the question: “Could you please let the NGOs participate? impact
assessment activities legislative documents of provincial governments or
not? ”. The results are shown in Table 3.5 below.
Table 3 5. Participation of NGOs in impact assessment
Participation
No participation

answers: within agency leadership; for everyone in the agency; on the
mass media; on the agency's website. The survey results show that the
publication of the analysis results of the text impact assessment through
the 4 listed channels is not guaranteed. The survey results are shown in
Table 3.7 below.
Table 3 7: Location of impact assessment legal documents
Location of
NO
Yes
Publicity
Number
%
Number
%
Inside leadership
227
89.98
31
12.02
Inside the agency
220
85.27
38
14.73
Mass media
235
91.09
23
8.91
Agency website

234

90.7
(Source: Survey)

3.1.5.1. Accountability and quality control
In order to find out about the accountability of the actors who
carries out the impact assessment of legislative documents, the law raises
the question, ”Could you please tell us the impact assessment agency is
willing to answer the question? questions about related parties' reports on
the impact of legal documents? ”.
Table 3 9. Willingness to answer questions
Yes
No
Number

%

Number

%

18

6.98

240

93.02


3.2.1. Positive results
Department of Justice has shown its important role in impact
assessment of legal documents. The issue of assessing the impact of legal
documents of local governments at provincial level has been more and
more concerned by the authorities than before. Provisions on impact
assessment of legislative documents of provincial governments in
particular and legal documents in general were initially codified in the
Law on Promulgation of Legal Documents 2015. The participation of
individuals, scientific and technological organizations and nongovernmental organizations is increasing more and more than before.
3.2.2. Negative results
Firstly, the participation of entities outside the Department of
Justice and specialized cadres and civil servants has been expanded, but
still accounts for a low proportion. Second, more notably, the agency that
plays the role of the actors assessing the impact of legislative documents
does not pay much attention to guiding other entities to participate in the
impact of normative documents. laws of provincial governments. Few
agencies have issued handbooks to guide stakeholders involved in the
impact assessment of legislative documents of provincial governments.
Thirdly, the issue of publicizing the results of the impact assessment
report on legal documents has not been paid enough attention. Fourthly,
the announcement of the results of the impact assessment of legal
documents is not only focused but the channel of publication is also
monotonous and has not been fully exploited. Fifth, the accountability of
the legal impact assessment agency is still limited. Sixthly, the content of
assessing the impact of the text is not comprehensive and only focuses
on one aspect which is “relevance to reality” with little focus on other
aspects such as “cost and benefit aspects”. ”. Seventh, the evaluation
process is still general in lack of details. The current review process only
focuses on two steps: the self-assessment of the drafting agency and the
evaluation of the legal document control body.

documents. The fourth is a view of responsibility. The agency
conducting the impact assessment of legal documents should clearly
show its responsibility in the assessment process, ensuring that the
assessment is clear, accurate and one of the reliable bases for the
promulgation of legal documents. The fourth is a view of participation.
The process of assessing the legal normative impact of provincial
governments needs to involve many actors at each stage of the
assessment process.
4.2. Solutions to ensure impact assessment of legislative documents
of provincial governments
4.2.1. Group of solutions on human resources capacity of provincial
governments
4.2.1.1. Perfecting skills on building and promulgating legal
documents for provincial governments
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Firstly, it is necessary to have skills in drafting legal documents.
Secondly, it is necessary to equip regularly and continuously the process
of drafting and promulgating legal documents for these individuals so
that they are more aware of the important role and position of each stage
in each stage. process of developing documents so that compliance is
strict and in compliance with regulations. Thirdly, the knowledge on the
development and promulgation of foreign legal documents should also
be shared and disseminated to officials and public servants involved in
the drafting and promulgation of legislative documents. laws of the
provincial government.
4.2.1.2. Raise awareness of the role of impact assessment of
legislative documents
In the coming time, in order to raise the awareness of cadres and

specific areas. For important documents, outside experts can be invited
to work together to help officials and public employees improve their
skills in assessing the impact of legal documents.
4.2.1.3.3. Promote the development of appropriate attitudes
for entities to carry out impact assessment of legislative documents.
In the coming time, the local governments of the provinces need to
thoroughly solve the problems. If it is part-time, the employer must pay.
Accordingly, funds need to be spent for this activity, and this funding
also refers to the payment to the implementing entity. Doing this will
help the actors make changes in the attitude of assessing the impact of
legal documents from bad faith, to goodwill, from a pressure into a task
to improve income. Specialized impact assessment activities should be
specialized to form a whole-hearted and whole-hearted attitude among
officials and public servants conducting impact assessment.
4.2.2. Group of technical solutions to impact assessment
activities of legal documents of local governments
4.2.2.1. Complete the provisions on the content and method of
impact assessment of legislative documents of provincial
governments
Similar to the actors of the impact assessment, the impact
assessment content and methods affect the quality of impact assessment
activities. These two factors are not paid enough attention; the right
focus makes the quality of assessment activities not good. In order for
the evaluation actors to focus on the content and use appropriate and
appropriate evaluation methods, the state needs to provide clear, specific,
scientific and detailed instructions.
4.2.2.2. Innovating the process of impact assessment of
legislative documents of provincial governments
There is a need to change the impact assessment process of
legislative documents. Accordingly, the proposed process: Step 1. The

The drafting agency carries out the impact assessment of legal
documents. The impact assessment will be forwarded to the agency
(division) controlling the impact assessment. If this department agrees
with the initial evaluation (PIA), it will conduct a RIS (Regulatory
Impact Statement: Impact Assessment of Legal Documents). The RIS
includes two types of documents: RIS consultations and RIS decisions.
The PIA as mentioned is an initial assessment of the impact of
legislative documents. The purpose of this evaluation phase is to: (1)
help the drafting agency to better understand and apply the provisions on
impact assessment of legal documents; (2) help the actors assess the
initial understanding of the level, scope of impact, risk of the text; (3)
helping control agencies to generalize the effects of legislative
documents.

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