Minister of Home Affairs Pham Thi Thanh Tra

Great honor, heavy responsibility

You are the first female Minister of Home Affairs in the past 75 years, since the ministry was established. Could you please tell us about your feelings?

Assuming office as Minister of Home Affairs is a great honor for me, but also a heavy responsibility to the Party, National Assembly, Government as well as people, especially the contingent of cadres, civil servants, public employees and workers of the entire home affairs sector.

I will have to make great efforts, together with the Civil Affairs Committee and leaders of the Ministry of Home Affairs, to continue to develop the sector, fulfilling the tasks in the new stage.

I feel touched as I am the first female Minister in the 75-year history of the ministry. I have to be able to continue and take over from predecessors to fulfill the tasks assigned to me.

You are one of two women of the current cabinet. What are the favorable conditions and difficulties for female Ministers?

The first favorable condition is that the 13th Party Congress Resolution clearly defines the viewpoints, orientations, goals and tasks for the country development in general and the tasks for the home affairs sector in particular.

As the directions are clear, what we have to do just is go the right way and soon reach the finish. Therefore, I think it would be more favorable to organize the implementation.

Moreover, the previous generations of leaders as well as cadres, civil servants and public employees have created a solid foundation for successors to continue to develop in the next period.

As a woman, I will certainly receive the attention, sympathy and encouragement from women in general and women in the home affairs sector in particular, and from all officers in the sector. This also gives me more motivation and confidence to overcome all difficulties to complete the assigned tasks.

Predecessor helps

How did you feel when you were assigned by the Politburo to the Ministry of Home Affairs five months ago?

This is a state management sector that covers many fields, a difficult and sensitive work. I was worried and felt pressure. But this is the task assigned by the Party, so I have to implement it.

When I began working here, the predecessor (former Minister of Home Affairs Le Vinh Tan) helped me a lot in the work. Tan is an enthusiastic person who has made big contributions to the development of the home affairs sector. He has been very persistent and determined in the last five years to steer the ministry to gain big achievements. His services are great.

What will be your motto and priorities?

First of all, it is necessary to thoroughly grasp the spirit of the 13th Party Congress Resolution and organize the implementation of the resolution in a synchronous way, with focus on five major tasks.

We will continue to give advice to build and perfect the institutional regime, and build a democratic, modern, professional, disciplined and transparent state administration that serves people and international integration," Pham Thi Thanh Tra, Minister of Home Affairs

We will continue to give advice to build and perfect the institutional regime, and build a democratic, modern, professional, disciplined and transparent state administration that serves people and international integration.

It is necessary to focus on accelerating administrative reform to make a breakthrough for the 2021-2026 period, so as to clear bottlenecks and remove barriers, thus creating motivation for development in the international integration era.

Third, it is necessary to continue restructuring the apparatus to make it compact and effective. This includes the re-arrangement of administrative units at district and commune level, and public non-business units.

This work has been done partially by the Ministry of Home Affairs, but still not comprehensively and synchronously and there are still problems. It will be handled very seriously in the immediate time.

Fourth, we will continue the process of streamlining personnel in association with restricting the contingent of cadres, civil servants and public employees according to job positions and leadership titles. At the same time, it is necessary to pay attention to discovering, fostering and appointing talented people to important posts.

These are also the issues mentioned in the 13th Party Congress which aim at building a contingent of cadres, civil servant and public employers who are professional and dynamic, serving people and putting people at the center.

Fifth, it is necessary to accelerate and perfect the decentralization mechanism in state management, and strengthen inspection to ensure unified state management.

You were a leader of local authorities. How will you use the experience you got during that time when you are Minister?

In the last few years, when I was Yen Bai provincial Party Committee Secretary, five tasks of the home affairs sector were implemented very seriously, especially in apparatus rearrangement, administrative reform and decentralization.

These are the precious experiences that I can use when I work as Minister and give instructions on implementation in other localities, especially ones with many difficulties.

You have to live far away from family and relatives. How can you both implement the tasks of a Minister and the tasks of a woman in the family?

There is a saying ‘men build houses, women build homes’. I have to make great efforts to fulfill the vocation of a woman. So, I try to balance the state affairs and housework and do them in harmonization. 

Thu Hang

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