Urban governance performance combined approach for medium sized city in Vietnam

Urban governance performance combined approach for medium sized city in Vietnam Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Hieu 1 and M.A. Le Thu Hoai 2 Abstract: This article attempts to describe how to measure the performance of the urban governce in Vietnam in combined approaches. Arguing to use a set of 50 indicators grouping in four governing dimensions: development management, essential utilities provision, use of administrative power, and use of resources, the authors propose that city s efforts are rendered more vividly with systematic data encompasses both government s statements and reflections from citizens with the combined approach. Results from analysing one city using in depth approach and 25 medium sized cities using comparative approach will show how this set of indicators worth using in future. Key words: urban governance performance, urban governance indicators, combined assessment approach, Vietnam medium sized city. 1 Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Hieu, Deputy Dean of Urban Management & Rural Development Faculty, National Academy of Public Administration of Vietnam 2 Le Thu Hoai, researcher in the Faculty of Organisation and Human resources, National Academy of Public Administration of Vietnam Dr. Hieu Nguyen and Hoai Le, 2013 Page 1

1 Introduction Performance of urban governance is an emerging issue in Vietnam. The concerns about reliability and availability of the existing information system raised during the economic downturns since 2009 when the property market started freezing and many urban development projects and plans collapsed. Since then, there have been discourses about the failure of the information system, the information of city development and the information of the outcomes Government has created. There is a pressing demand to measure the efforts of the authorities as well as what they bring about to citizens and businesses. It is obvious that not only the Government, but also market and people need what is going in their living place. This article discusses the problem with current approaches to measure the performance of urban governance and the necessity to have a better policyoriented indicator system to benchmark urban governance to assist different levels of authorities to address people s needs. The combined approach used in this study is not a new theory. In fact, it is an analytical framework for measuring urban governance adapting to Vietnam s context. The chosen framework is the basis to develop a specific set of indicators. The selection of indicators follows several rules of the relevancy, credibility, practicability, and universality. This set of indicators is tested to visualise how they function in reality. This set of indicators is designed mainly for medium sized cities. As city size and problems in the medium sized city may be less complicated, the indicators gathering from similar city would be more reliable. Meanwhile, mega or regional cities need different (and larger) sampling frame to measure the them comprehensively and properly. This article is a first stage of a long term research. In depth survey was taken in only one city. Slected indicators are tested with secondary data in one forth of the number of cities in Vietnam. Further studies shall be needed to verify the practicability of the approach as well as the content of this set of indicators. 2 Literature review 2.1 Performance of urban governance In general, the urban governance is understood as the working of an administrative system. Performance normaly means to measure in eithereffectiveness or efficiency terms. Efficiency is used when comparing the Dr. Hieu Nguyen and Hoai Le, 2013 Page 2

outputs over a unit of input. Effectiveness is used describe how to get a desired or intended result, i.e. to measure some jobs and services without 3 output volume. For example, maintaining a status quo that meets goals set in policies or reaching a desired (new) status following long/short term development plans. In many circumstances, this status can be translated to measurable indicators or objectives. Indicators from performance can link to different forms of information. Figures associate with output and outcome is broader and more abstract term. When measure the performance of a service, the out come could be a status that people feel satisfactory. In practice, people can score their feeling when they see authority react promptly to protect citizen from violence, or be assertive to any violation against the rules. These can be expressed in some forms of indicators. A measuring system using indicators should be formulated upon an analytical framework that reflect its governing features. Urban governance has its own analytical framework due to its discipline and boundary between interdisciplines. However, there is no fix boundary and fix approach to unveil the whole complicated issue like urban governance. Approach to measure urban governance may vary significantly due to the framework and the operationalisation of that framework. Its purpose also contribute to the difference in measuring the performance. Any measurement may focus on some groups and may exclude/depreciate others. A better approach means it encompasses all major aspects and enable common sharing views in urban society. In other words, any set of indicators can be biased due to its boundary of the concept of urban governance, its completeness of the approach, non exclude views, and the logical operationalisation of measurement. This is the task of this research attempts to control the flaws and biased of any set of indicators. 3 Microsoft Encarta Reference Library 2004. 1993-2003 Microsoft Corporation. Dr. Hieu Nguyen and Hoai Le, 2013 Page 3

2.2 Background Traditionally, the measurement of urban management or governance 4 is regarded as internal affairs in Vietnam. The Ministry of Construction (MOC) and provincial authorities have their own monitoring system with reports, checks and statistics. It seems that indicator oriented policy has not played important role in the system due to its reliability. In the transitional context, the State control and produce less output but statistics still rely on its own statistics and internal report system. The approach to measure outcomes in urban governance from Government perspectiv has been consolidating recently. In 2007, the Ministry of Construction promulgated a new set of indicators to monitor urban development with 35 indicators (Ministry of Construction of Vietnam, 2007). Two years later, MOC added some detailed criteria for classifying cities in urban system (Chinh phu, 2009; MOC, 2009). The Government Statistics Office also extended its indicator s list and added 10 indicators for construction sector (Prime Minister, 2010). However, new indicators only abate subjectivity of the Government s system as all of the above data are collected and handled without the participation of independent entity such as non government sector. Over past decade, Non Government Organisations (NGOs), foreign development agencies, and domestic research institutions are actively working on new approaches to evaluate urban governance performance. Of the researches available recently, there are 3 programs built up significant urban development data. They are Vietnam Urban Observatory System (VUOS) and its index (Vietnam Urban Index VUI), executed by Association City of Vietnam (ACVN), UN Habitat Program in Vietnam and partner with Urban Development Agency (UDA) from MOC; Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI), run by Vietnam Chamber of Commerce; and Public Administration Performance Index (PAPI), owned by United Nations Development Program in Vietnam (UNDP). VUOS (and VUI) is a Vietnamese version of the Global Urban Index (GUI) 5. Launched in 2009, the project began surveying three piloted cities using 24 4 In Vietnam, the term governance is not yet used officially as management. Urban governance is not yet understood with its full meaning of strategic management with acknowledgement of stakeholders like in other countries. However, urban management in Vietnam is transforming towards urban governance with the participation of non State actors, with more strategic approach. The term governance, therefore, is used as a synonym with urban management when referring to the Government s activities. 5 GUI is an index created in the Global Urban Observatory program, initiated by UN Habitat to monitor the city development at global and regional scale monitors global progress in implementing the Habitat Agenda and to monitor the global urban conditions and trends. See further at http://www.unhabitat.org/categories.asp?catid=646 Dr. Hieu Nguyen and Hoai Le, 2013 Page 4

main 6 indicators. After that, a data set of 97 indicators were proposed for upscaling the survey in 96 cities of Vietnam from class three upwards 7. This data set is designed still has some drawbacks. Fisrstly, as the research team faced with many difficulties in accessing 24 indicators due to the poor data management capacity, so they tried to use only available statistics and avoid the analytical framework of GUO project (ACVN & UN Habitat, 2010). Two years since project finished, this data set has never been published because the concerns about its reliability and rigorosity in approaching methods without verification. Its project owner, Dr. Nguyen Quang suggested that they need more funding for data verification, more thourough surveys, and more souding financial mechanism for sustaining this data set 8. Secondly, actual governance indicators are irrelevant. For example, only 5 out of 97 indicators labelled governance, but represent a minor aspect of governance such as: how gender balance within municipality? What are the average time to finish administrative documents? How people participate in plan making, and Is city website available. In short, these make the VUI s benchmark of urban governance less meaningful. Comparing to the approach and methods guidelines in the GUI project, VUI intensively exploited available universal statistics and leave out some indicators using bottom up approach to experts in the field and community survey with flexible design of the local concepts and actual situation (UN Habitat, 2009). PCI, first launched 2005, aimed at measuring the satisfaction of firms when working with provincial authorities. PCI randomly selected large and medium entrepreneurs to ask questions about the basic public services, infrastructure quality, and acceess to loans and land. The cross country data enables PCI to compare business environment amongst provinces/ equivalent cities (VCCI & PCI Vietnam, 2007). PAPI, launched 2009, measured the citizen s satisfaction over the public service delivery at household level (UNDP Vietnam, VFF, & CECODES, 2011). PAPI focused on how people perceived the service delivery in selected (hot) issues. The analytical framwork relies on six dimensions of measurement, including: participation, transparency, accountability, corruption prevention, public administration procedure, and (some) public services. 6 These set of indicators follows the Vietnam Millennium Goals indicators and elaborate some of them to represent urban specific issues 7 City in Vietnam are classified into six classes: special, one, two, three, four, and five. The class three upwards are called city, class four and five called town. 8 Interview Dr. Quang, Director of UN Habitat Program in July, 2013. Dr. Hieu Nguyen and Hoai Le, 2013 Page 5

PCI and PAPI tackled urban performance from outside of the Government, which complement to the GSO s or MOC s internal performance data. The use of large scale and sustaining survey with fairly rigorous methods attracted the attention of many scholars and practitioners in Vietnam. Even many authorities now use these two benchmaks as a reference to adjust local policies. Hanoi city even organise a special Committee to deal with the competitiveness that link to the PCI index in 2011. PAPI and PCI might be valuable data in some aspects; however, they were not designed to deal with urban affairs. Their coverages are focused on how local authorities use their power to deliver urban related services (land accessibility, registration, and infrastructure quality). Especially, there was no separation between the development status and the link to efforts of local authorities on making changes status quo. It seems that available methods/approaches in Vietnam have not adequately measured urban governance performance yet. The Government s internal arpproach neglected how people perceived the services. Statistics system in Vietnam is basically closed system and there is very little possibility to triangulate with other data source. PAPI and PCI are people oriented with rigorous method to measure the outcome; however, they had the small coverage problem. Only VUI is a sound data set with comprehensive coverage. However, VUI chosen by UN Habitat Vietnam seemed compromised its data quality although departed from a strong ground. 3 Combined approach to urban governance performance 3.1 Conceptual framework As discussed above, existing methods and approaches to measure the urban governance performance are either inadequate or inappropriate. This article attempts to set up a more relevant and appropriate set of indicators to reflect the efforts of local government in governing urban affairs and test it in reality using combined approach. The measurement starts up with a concept urban governance. As there are diverse definitions of urban governance in Vietnam, the concept of urban governance is expressed as coodinating efforts of stakeholders using the Government s power to orientate, adjust, monitor the operation and development processes of urban entities, develop and implement policies and Dr. Hieu Nguyen and Hoai Le, 2013 Page 6

plans to allocate resources appropriately, ensure the standarised provision of basic services/utilities, protect the legal rights of citizesns and firms, ensure the rule of law, common order and social values, protect environment quality in order to create and sustain a sound urban quality of life. Urban governance is grounded on the human settlement management discipline. There are four aspects that feature urban affairs so far: governing development, maintenance of utility service, protecting social and physical environment quality, and use of power accountably and transparently. This concept is described in the conceptual framework below. Social environment: safety security & public order 3b Infrastructure development & utility provision and delivery transport electricity water garbage sanitation social housing 2 Development management: planning, construction, housing and infrastructure development 1 Physical environment: land, water, air, noise 3a Transparency, accountability, participation, integrity and corruption protection 4 Figure 1: Urban Governance conceptual framework The performance of urban governance follows this concept to figure out four dimensions of output/outcomes, including: development, use of power, basic services, and user of resources. In this framework, the efforts of government shall be evaluated via resources they use and manage. Therefore, resource management shall be represented separately using Government s data with one dimension. The other three dimensions shall link to the outcome and impact to the society: development management, use of administrative power, and utility quality and provision. These three dimensions should be Dr. Hieu Nguyen and Hoai Le, 2013 Page 7

approached bilaterally from both Government and Citizen s/community s aspect. Each dimension is then elaborated into smaller criteria and indicators reflecting main outputs/outcomes. Indicators are selected with the notion that all of governance efforts associate with not only statistical figures, but also with the perception of citizens and organisations/firms. The conceptual framework of urban governance performance is presented in the figure below. Figure 2: Four dimension of performance of urban governance This figure implies that we can create a model to clarify the changes associated with the Government s efforts, which may bring about better analysis for making decision and reviewing the policy and administrative measures. The left side of the model comprises independent variables representing municipality s efforts and right side is dependent one represents quality of living place. Dependent variable can be represented by Urban Development Index, collected by observation of socio economic development condition. Errors of the model will reflect that each city has its own natural conditions, traditional history of values. Of course other unaccounted variables will contribute to other sorts of errors to the model. Dr. Hieu Nguyen and Hoai Le, 2013 Page 8

3.2 Dimensions and indicators Based on the analytical framework, we develop the full dimensions with component indicators. 3.2.1 Dimension 1: Accountability and responsiveness Accountability is responsibility of the head of organisation accountable to their staff or to the owners/citizens of that executive institutions. Responsiveness capacity is the capability to execute the course of actions responding to the need or planned program to resolve occuring problems. Both of these criteria hold up the dimension that are operationalised into existing mandates of the relevant organisations. The analycal framework of the accountability and responsiveness capacity in reality is depicted in the following figure. Responsiven ess Service provisions resolve problems Dimension 1 Appeals resolution Reallocation to address changing needs Accountability Cooperation to resolve problems Internal audit Accountable to relevant entities People s committees Other political social organizations Citizens, communities Figure 3: Accountability and responsiveness analytical framework Following this framework, we develop 13 indicators presented in the Appendix A, Dimension 1. Dr. Hieu Nguyen and Hoai Le, 2013 Page 9

3.2.2 Dimension 2 Effectiveness of resource management The purpose of this dimension is to evaluate how effective the municipality budgeting, allocate, mobilise their resources to address the urban problems and needs. There are four areas they are facing, including: 1. Budgeting, including revenue and expenses; 2. Use of natural resources (incl. land, water, building material, and natural beauty), and infrastructure; 3. Use of infrastructure to meet the development and daily needs; 4. Mobilisation of social economic resources to meet city development. The problem facing in this dimension is there are many financial indicators that may distort the picture if overuse them. The solution is dividing it into two groups: budget related, and other resources. Budget related issues include relationship with upper level (provincial), with businesses, organisation, people, and the effectiveness according to the budget law. The conceptual framework of the resource use with budget related issues is described in the figure below: Dr. Hieu Nguyen and Hoai Le, 2013 Page 10

Figure 4: Budget related resource conceptual framework In the area of other resource use, the logics of these resources are they are contributing to the development and sustainability of the city. It can be perceived as a figure below: Dr. Hieu Nguyen and Hoai Le, 2013 Page 11

Figure 5: other resource conceptual framework Following these conceptual frameworks, we develop 10 indicators (5 budget related and 5 others) presented in the Appendix A, Dimension 2. 3.2.3 Dimension 3 development management Development management includes plan making, development control, infrastructure development, housing development and preservation historical /natural values during the development processes. The concept of variables and affected factors to the development processes is described in the figure below: Dr. Hieu Nguyen and Hoai Le, 2013 Page 12

Figure 6: Development management conceptual framework Following this framework, the indicators are selected to present various tasks of the local authorities, including land acquisition, project management, plan making, land use ratio with public, road, and other services such as building permit and land title. All of them would present the success and/or failure of the city administration. In Vietnam, the protection of water space and public space is specific in the context of development. This is the problems of the common that reflects the level of effectiveness of local authority facing today. Some other ratios also used to depict the sound development in terms of infrastructure growth and urban area growth. Detailed description of indicators is presented in the Appendix, Dimension 3. 3.2.4 Dimension 4 public utilities management Public utilities mean essential service/condition that ensure the normal operation of life, including electricity, water supply and drainage, transport, garbage collection, safety and security, and green and recreational space for relaxation. There are different levels of governance associating with the provision of each service. Several levels of authorities may get involve in one service. Transport is an example. The concept of urban governance jobs providing utilities and services to city life is described in a figure below. Dr. Hieu Nguyen and Hoai Le, 2013 Page 13

Flooding, waste water and garbage treatment Sewage, public transport, lighting, waste management, environment protection, water supply, public space, green space, safety & security region Pulic order, waste management, housing, transport, safety city Ward/sub city level Water supply, garbage collection, neighbourhood environment quality neighbourhood Figure 7: conceptualisation of utilities provision in city structure Note that the quality of life is not only determined by utilities quality, as utilities foster the physical conditions to sustain the life in urban area. However, this is the core part of urban life and consumes enormous efforts of any municipality. Following this concept, a set of 10 indicators are selected and presented in the Appendix, Dimension 4. As the set of indicators has been erected, the next step is to examine if they are working well in Vietnam development context. This article shows 2 (of many other steps) that experiments how they work in reality. The first step is to test if indicators may work in a medium sized city. The test in the city explores how city managers will react to the approach; examine the difficulties in using them; and create urban profile with indicators to understand its capacity to cover the urban issues in local context. The next step is to apply the indicator set to create profile of other cities, compare them and rank them by individual variables. This step depends on the availability of the cities data. The rank of cities in some aspect may not be the main theme, as the comparison is only served as the experiment of the comparing tool, not to work out the actual city ranking competition. Results are shown in the next section. Dr. Hieu Nguyen and Hoai Le, 2013 Page 14

4 Testing results 4.1 Son Tay case study Son Tay is selected to test the practicability of the set of indicators. This is a medium sized city functioned as a satellite city, about 42km to the Northwest of Hanoi. Son Tay has two tiers of governance: City and Ward level. Each contains Component Divisions that are relevant to urban governance. The organization model of the city is depicted as followings: Figure 8: Organisation of Son Tay Municipality (Source: the author) There are two main activities in Son Tay city: in depth interviews and questionnaire survey. The in depth interview was taken with City Managers (Chairman, Vice Chairman of The People s Committee, and the Vice Chairman of The People s Council) about the practicability of the framework and indicators in Son Tay. Also, the meeting will collect the information about the overall measurement of urban governance performance from the leader s point of view. Questionnaire survey was carried out in 3 levels of governance (city, ward, and population groups) with cluster and random sampling method applied at two Wards. Two Wards were selected to represent two development areas: old Dr. Hieu Nguyen and Hoai Le, 2013 Page 15

town and urban fringe. Samples were taken in two communities representing two featuring household clusters in each Ward. The set of 50 indicators was reviewed and evaluated by the selected experts who supposed to have experience in urban governance. The questionnaire was designed to adapt to the informants with relevant expertise. The survey at the city level was conducted in Component Divisions responsible for urban governance, including: urban management, environment resource, finance and planning, construction inspection, and authorities in two wards. The result of the in depth interviews showed that they support the clarity of this set of indicators. All interviewees appreciated the necessity of using indicators to measure the performance of the local urban governance and these will improve the performance of the relevant working Units. However, they proposed that the measuring criteria should be localized to fit local context. For example, in Son Tay, the building permits and public services were not at the same level of concern as they are in booming development. And aggregation of the same criteria would not reflect the challenges and efforts they are making in Son Tay. Managers in Son Tay suggest that this set of indicators will face some difficulties. Some of the indicators may not be relevant to the actual situation, represented by the level of satisfaction with the indicators and dimension as a whole. In general, the evaluation of the dimension is described as following: Dr. Hieu Nguyen and Hoai Le, 2013 Page 16

income, quality of living Accountability and responsiveness capacity 3 2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5 0 effectiveness use of resources management of utilities provision development management Figure 9: Dimension s relevancy evaluation in Son Tay Based on the questionnaire survey, a profile of the Son Tay in four dimensions will be drawn. Although the sampling frame is small, they also show that city has its own strength and weaknesses according to the civil servants and local communities. The following figures show how urban governance in Son Tay is measured in the four dimensions. First dimension accountability and responsiveness capacity Dr. Hieu Nguyen and Hoai Le, 2013 Page 17

Processing jobs according to the procedure Satisfaction on decision Inspection and checking mechanism Internal audit effectiveness of People's Inspection Board 3 effectiveness of Community's Investment 2.5 Board 2 transparency of the civil 1.5 servant's duties 1 0.5 0 Transparency of the procedure and request of the government bodies processed proposals/appeals/acusiti ons of the resolved after hearing Appeals, claim, and charge resolved Building permits Land title and house ownership Figure 10: Son Tay accountability and responsiveness capacity profile Second dimension: Managing resources Dr. Hieu Nguyen and Hoai Le, 2013 Page 18

Fund mobilizing from society Landscape and tourism natural resource management. Reserve capacity of water supply in the dry season Budget revenues per capita in urban area. 3 2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5 0 Total tax and revenues The management costs of the urban governance per capita The ratio of subsidy Land area per capita Land area for public facilities Budget for urban development Figure 11: Son Tay resource management profile Third dimension: Managing urban development The rate of fund mobilizing from society compared with the total investment in The effectiveness of landscape and tourism natural resource management. The rate of land area per capita in inner city compared with the urban land area 3 2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5 0 The percentage of reserve capacity of water supply in the dry season The effectiveness of landscape and tourism natural resource management. The percentage of reserve capacity of water supply in the dry season The rate of land area per capita in inner city compared with the urban land area The rate of fund mobilizing from society compared with the total investment in The rate of land area for public facilities per capita to urban planning standard Dr. Hieu Nguyen and Hoai Le, 2013 Page 19

Figure 12: Urban development management profile Fourth dimension: public utilities and infrastructure service the level of security and safety in public places The level of order of business in public The level of pollution of surface and Average commuting speeds on rush hours at 3 2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5 0 The percentage of households with tap water The rate of water loss (incl. leakage) The percentage of households having The level of air pollution and smog in urban areas Meeting the demand for travel by public The rate of solid waste collected The percentage of solid waste processed (for city Figure 13: Son Tay public utilities and infrastructure service profile The Son Tay profile showed that this city has some strengths and weaknesses. For example, water supply is a concern of the city (Figure 12), especially in dry season although they have fairly high access to tap water (Figure 13). The city also faced with low mobilisation of social capital to invest in city development (Figure 12). Overall, the profile provides visualisation of the city in a systematic combination of top down and bottom up approach. 4.2 Comparing urban governance performance using secondary database in 25 cities In order to further examine the use of indicators at the inter city scale, the author conducted further experimental test using the set to evaluate the performance of the urban governance in medium sized cities. Since there were also certain difficulties to collect the primary database in order to widely test the research proposed indicators hence, the secondary data and comparative approach were employed. After careful consideration and Dr. Hieu Nguyen and Hoai Le, 2013 Page 20

comparison, a set of indicators are used with the reference of data from Public Administration Performance Index (PAPI) and Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI). Besides, some other sources of data were also considered which included the databases of General Statistics Office (GSO) and Urban Development Authority of Vietnam (UDA). The used secondary data were collected in 2010 and 2011. Due to thie limitation using of secondary database, results might be narrowed in describing and comparing aggregated index. Anyhow, it serves as an illustrated example to test the application of the data set, not to present actual problems in each city. The comparisons and ranking in the graph played as orientation function that need further inquiries and verification. 25 cities to analyze were selected upon several criteria. According to the research design, the sample of cities which was selected based on two criteria. First, the chosen cities must be the provincial urban centers whose data are available in the PAPI s database. Second, samples have to represent all urbanizing region (Vietnam has 6 urbanizing region). The distribution and basic information of 25 cities are described in 2 figures below: Dr. Hieu Nguyen and Hoai Le, 2013 Page 21

Figure 14: Distribution of 25 sample cities in 25 provinces in Vietnam Dr. Hieu Nguyen and Hoai Le, 2013 Page 22

800 700 600 500 400 300 200 100 0 Lai Châu Cao Bằng Hà Giang Vị Thanh Điện Biên Phủ Đông Hà Yên Bái Hà Tĩnh Phủ Lý Hưng Yên Kon Tum Vĩnh Long Tuy Hòa Tân An Sơn Tây Lạng Sơn Hải Dương Mỹ Tho Cà Mau Nam Định Việt Trì Quy Nhơn Huế Buôn Ma Thuột Biên Hòa Area (km2) Population (x1000) Figure 15: Basic information about 25 cities Due to the nature of the measurement and calculation of the available data were in a variety of measures and different step scale, hence it required a kind of standardize methods for synthesis. The researcher, therefore, converted the criteria data using simple trans coding methods in order to obtain the mean or the average parameters. Upon such conversion, the calibration of criteria was uniformly scaled of 10. This process consisted of screening of raw data; removing the case did not respond and the lack of data. Then, data was recoded and frequencies analyzed using statistical analysis software SPSS 14.0 and finally presented as following. The following graphs illustrate the results examining each variable with 25 cities, together with a map showing their locations. Note that only one variable/indicator is used at a time and illustration the map using GIS technique with color scale to differentiate the variation amongst 25 cities. Most of the figures used PAPI data except the final variable using the infrastructure evaluation of the firms working in the province. The data was extracted from the PCI database. Dr. Hieu Nguyen and Hoai Le, 2013 Page 23

120 100 80 60 40 20 0 Inspection Board working effectively No Inspection Board working effectively Yes Figure 16: Comparison of the effectiveness of Citizen's Inspection Boards in 25 sample cities Figure 17: Status of Citizen's Inspection Boards effectiveness in 25 sample cities Dr. Hieu Nguyen and Hoai Le, 2013 Page 24

120.0 100.0 80.0 60.0 40.0 20.0 /CISB functioning effectively? No /CISB functioning effectively? Yes 0.0 Figure 18: Effectiveness of the Investment Monitoring Board in 25 samples Cities Figure 19: Distribution the operation status of the Investing units of 25 sample cities Dr. Hieu Nguyen and Hoai Le, 2013 Page 25

10.50 10.00 9.50 9.00 8.50 8.00 7.50 TP My Tho TP Ha Tinh TP Qui Nhon Thi xa Dong Xoai TP Phu Ly TP Vinh Long TP Kon Tum TP Hue TP Tuy Hoa TP Hai Duong TP Ca Mau TP Nam Dinh Thi xa Son Tay TP Bien Hoa TX Vi Thanh TP Hung Yen TP Lang Son Thi xa Lai Chau TP Dien Bien Phu Thi xa Cao Bang TP Buon Ma Thuot TP Dong Ha TP Tan An TP Viet Tri TP Yen Bai Figure 20: Comparison of budget transparency in 25 sample cities Figure 21: Comparison of budget transparency in 25 cities showing in the map Dr. Hieu Nguyen and Hoai Le, 2013 Page 26

120.0 100.0 80.0 60.0 40.0 20.0 Being instructed properly about procedures Disagree Being instructed properly about procedures Agree 0.0 Figure 22: Satisfaction of procedure instruction amongst 25 sample cities Dr. Hieu Nguyen and Hoai Le, 2013 Page 27

Figure 23: Satisfaction of procedure instruction amongst 25 sample cities showing in the map 9.00 8.00 7.00 6.00 5.00 4.00 3.00 2.00 1.00.00 TP Buon Ma TP Bien Hoa TP Yen Bai TP Phu Ly Thi xa Lai Chau TP Hung Yen Thi xa Dong Xoai TP My Tho TP Hai Duong TP Dien Bien Phu TP Dong Ha TX Vi Thanh TP Tan An Thi xa Son Tay TP Ha Tinh TP Hue TP Kon Tum TP Tuy Hoa TP Viet Tri TP Vinh Long TP Lang Son Thi xa Cao Bang TP Ca Mau TP Nam Dinh TP Qui Nhon Figure 24 Participation in urban plan making in 25 sample cities Figure 25: Participation in urban plan making in 25 sample cities showing on the map Other indicators assessment Dr. Hieu Nguyen and Hoai Le, 2013 Page 28

Research employed PCI secondary data to measure the level of completeness of the urban infrastructure. However, PCI only reported on the provincial bases instead of individual urban area as a result, the research s findings only run by provinces. Besides, the variables taken from the PCI focused on transportation, electricity, telecommunications and industrial parks which are a part of the urban utility but did not demonstrate the current issue that existed in urban utility. Thus, this comparative description, which limits of accuracy, is used to test the application of the set of indicators only. Infrastructure completion (by province) 8.00 7.00 6.00 5.00 4.00 3.00 2.00 1.00 0.00 Lai Châu Hà Tĩnh Bình Phước Cao Bằng Cà Mau Điện Biên Kon Tum Quảng Trị Tiền Giang Phú Thọ Lạng Sơn Yên Bái Hà Nam Hậu Giang Vĩnh Long Thua thien Huế Long An Phú Yên Bình Định Hưng Yên Hải Dương Nam Định Đăk Lăk Hà Nội Đồng Nai Figure 26: Comparing infrastructure quality in 25 sample cities (by province) Dr. Hieu Nguyen and Hoai Le, 2013 Page 29

Figure 27: Quality of local infrastructure of 25 sample cities show on the map 5 Conclusion This article showed how a combined approach to urban governance performance can be visualized in Vietnam s development context. Evaluations of local authority s efforts have been figured out in systematic way, presented in graphical format that enable readers to visualize how weaknesses and strength are rendered in reality. Some detailed aspects have been examined in comparative form at the level of countrywide. This set of indicator transcended available measurement of urban governance in some senses. The proposal of 4 dimensions and 50 indicators was grounded on the theorized analytical framework that covered both the hard fact data from State s statistics and data from external sources, with the reflection of the citizen and community level. All of indicators have been checked via expert interviews, and some of the indicators have been tested in reality, by loading real data to the set to observe how dimensions were working in one city and in dozens of others (although limited in some aspects). The set of indicators have been designed to match the medium sized cities in Vietnam urban system. They make used of the available data from the GSO Dr. Hieu Nguyen and Hoai Le, 2013 Page 30

and other large scale and rigorous data base. Therefore, it is cheaper and faster to establish city profile. As there are many indicators are primary data that should be extracted directly from the real case situation, the design of the set of indicators enabled the city managers to personalize its profile to serve local context. However, this may escalate the difficulties to compare the efforts/situation from one city to another. Also, it might increase the cost and time consuming of making full set of city data for analyzing and making decision. The proposal of data set has a weakness of theory verification. As the analytical framework has not been critiqued thoroughly, it might have some flaws when up scaling to test different development context, larger city (comparing to Son Tay), and over different time. The main focus of the product is to provide better information (more reliable, faster, and cheaper, for example) has not been challenged properly at current examination. Also, there was no discussion about how to make this product more feasible and practical. When facing difficulties in retrieving data, working with informants chronic problems of the public administration system in Vietnam, the tests have not yet checked the difficulties in approaching informants, data, and the problems of conflicting and unreliable data. The incentives to use the system shall be analyzed together with the creation of the data base, as they will never been materialized in practice. Testing at one city seems not reliable to expect the potential welcome of the local authority. Also, the acceptance and support of other stakeholders such as NGOs should have been checked. In short, the conceptual framework and the set of indicators are both at infant stage. It will take more time and efforts to test and revise them in other cities. More experiments with more involved experts are expected to work out the drawbacks and limits of the approach as well as the output of this research. Hopefully, this is still a solution for the improvement of transparency to urban governance as well as better tool to adjust policies and behaviors of all stake holders in urban affairs relationship. Dr. Hieu Nguyen and Hoai Le, 2013 Page 31

Appendix A: Description of the set of indicators measuring urban governance performance Seq. Description Measurement Dimension 1: accountability and responsiveness capacity 1. Accountability mechanism at the local level 1 1.1.1 2 1.1.2 The effectiveness of the People s Inspection Board The effectiveness of the Investment Monitoring Board Satisfaction Satisfaction 3 1.1.3 Budget transparency of local authorities Satisfaction 4 1.1.4 Information transparency on procedures, process in handling citizens and organizations affairs Satisfaction 2. Responsiveness capacity 5 1.2.1 6 1.2.2 7 1.2.3 8 1.2.4 9 1.2.5 The extent to which the recommendation of social political organizations was received, processed and implemented by urban governance The rate of land title, house ownership issued in due course The rate of construction permit issued in due course The rate of complaints, denunciations, and petitions of citizens that were settled by urban governance officers within the due course The rate of citizens and organizations hearing being solved Satisfaction 10 1.2.6 Level of people s satisfaction on the settlement Satisfaction Dr. Hieu Nguyen and Hoai Le, 2013 Page 32

of authority 3. Institutional capacity 11 1.3.1 12 1.3.2 13 1.3.3 Institution handling affairs in accordance to the process and procedures issued. Internal monitoring mechanism in handling affairs of citizens and organizations The inspection and investigation mechanism in the public administration system to ensure the transparency in the activities of subordinate agencies Self assessed Self assessed Self assessed Dimension 2 The efficiency in the use of natural resources and human resources 2.1 Budget revenues and expenditures 14 2.1.1 Budget revenues per capita in urban area. VN dong/year 15 2.1.2 16 2.1.3 17 2.1.4 18 2.1.5 Total tax and revenues collected from the residents regarding to the urban management : construction, land, public services, tax registration, land authority auction per capita The management costs of the urban governance per capita The ratio of subsidy (to balance the budget) from the governance to the total cost of the local urban The satisfaction rate of the budget arrangement for investment in urban development and renovation VN dong/year VN dong/year 2.2 Land management and other resources 19 2.2.1 The rate of land area for public facilities per capita to urban planning standard 20 2.2.2 The rate of land area per capita in inner city Dr. Hieu Nguyen and Hoai Le, 2013 Page 33

compared with the urban planning standard) land area (urban The percentage of reserve capacity of water 21 2.2.3 supply in the dry season 22 2.2.4 The effectiveness of landscape and tourism natural resource management. satisfaction 23 2.2.5 The rate of fund mobilizing from society compared with the total investment in infrastructure and urban development. Dimension 3: Development management 24 3.1 The coverage ratio of zoning plan scheme 1/2000 25 3.2 The percentage of completion in land usage planning (according to the ratio of the area) 26 3.3 27 3.4 28 3.5 29 3.6 30 3.7 31 3.8 The level of difficulty in implementing planning procedures The ratio of unpermitted development case to the total number of cases. the rate of delayed development projects (over a year) compared with the total number of development projects The ratio of land title granted to total documents filed The growth rate of housing area per capita over the past 10 years. rate of increase in length of roads and change in growth of urban area Satisfaction 32 3.9 Number of new jobs created per unit of dong/ job Dr. Hieu Nguyen and Hoai Le, 2013 Page 34

33 3.10 34 3.11 investment in urban development The rate of resident living in slums (house without land authority, temporary, lack of facilities water, drainage, and sanitation) The average decline rate of water surface area in inner city over last 10 years created Dimension 4: Public utilities management 4.1 infrastructure management 35 4.1.1 The ratio of actual land for traffic to urban land according to planning standard 36 4.1.2 The ratio of greenery area to urban built up area 37 4.1.3 38 4.1.4 The ratio of the length of drainage pipe per capita for each road length to the serviced area The rate of street meeting standard civilized urban area km/km2/person km/km2/per capita 39 4.1.5 The rate of illuminated urban alleys 4.2 Management of public utilities 40 4.2.1 Average commuting speeds on rush hours at the center (city class one upwards) km/h 41 4.2.2 The percentage of households with tap water 42 4.2.3 The rate of water loss (incl. leakage) 43 4.2.4 The percentage of households having access to public drainage services 44 4.2.5 The rate of solid waste collected 45 4.2.6 The percentage of solid waste processed (for city class one upwards) Dr. Hieu Nguyen and Hoai Le, 2013 Page 35

46 4.2.7 Meeting the demand for travel by public transport (city class one upwards) 47 4.2.8 The level of air pollution and smog in urban areas Expert evaluation 48 4.2.9 The level of pollution of surface and underground water in urban areas Expert evaluation 49 4.2.10 The level of order of business in public 50 4.2.11 the level of security and safety in public places satisfaction score satisfaction score References ACVN & UN Habitat "Ky yeu hoi thao xay dung chi so do thi", Ninh Binh. Chinh phu. Nghi dinh 42/CP/2009 ve phan loai do thi. 7 5 2009. Ref Type: Statute Ministry of Construction of Vietnam. Decision 28/2007/QD BXD. 2007. Ref Type: Statute MOC. Directive 34/TT BXD on urban classification. 2009. Ref Type: Statute Prime Minister. Decision 43/2010/QD TTg. 2010. Ref Type: Statute UN Habitat 2009, Urban indicators guidelines, UN Publication, Nairobi, Kenia. UNDP Vietnam, VFF, & CECODES 2011, Public Administration Performance Index (provincial level), UNDP, Hanoi. VCCI & PCI Vietnam 2007, PCI methodology, VCCI, Hanoi. Dr. Hieu Nguyen and Hoai Le, 2013 Page 36