On the afternoon of June 1, at the Government Headquarters, Secretary of the Party Central Committee, Deputy Prime Minister Pham Thi Thanh Tra chaired a meeting with ministries and sectors on the draft Project to complete the state management apparatus on food safety in the direction of unifying a focal point from the Central to local levels.
Currently, Vietnam's state management system on food safety is organized according to a model assigned to 3 Ministries, including the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, and the Ministry of Industry and Trade. Accordingly, each Ministry is assigned to be in charge of the management sector according to the food industry.
Speaking at the working session, Deputy Prime Minister Pham Thi Thanh Tra emphasized that the project needs to clarify the necessity of perfecting the state management apparatus on food safety.
According to the Deputy Prime Minister, protecting people's health and lives must be put first, and this is also an objective requirement to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of state management, meeting the requirements of national development and international integration in the new period.
The Deputy Prime Minister said that reality is posing a requirement to frankly recognize the limitations of the current management mechanism such as the situation of fragmentation, intersection, overlap, and even times when management responsibilities have not been clearly defined.
Therefore, consolidating the organizational structure is necessary to clearly define the functions, tasks, management methods, and at the same time create a basis for continuing to improve the institutional system and policies on food safety.
Emphasizing the overarching principle of the project, the Deputy Prime Minister said that the completion of the organizational structure must be placed in the overall renovation of the political system, ensuring streamlining, efficient operation, effectiveness, and efficiency.
In particular, the unification of a focal point aims to assign one agency to be primarily responsible for advising, coordinating and organizing implementation, but relevant ministries and sectors must still fully perform their functions and tasks under their authority.
The Ministry of Health is the main agency responsible, but ministries and sectors must still fully perform their responsibilities according to their assigned functions and tasks," the Deputy Prime Minister emphasized.
The Deputy Prime Minister also gave opinions on consolidating the Food Safety Management Department under the Ministry of Health in the direction of receiving more functions, tasks and related personnel from the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, the Ministry of Industry and Trade; and at the same time orienting the consolidation of the organizational model at the provincial and commune levels, ensuring that there is a focal agency responsible, along with a coordination mechanism and appropriate human resources at all levels.
One of the important principles emphasized by the Deputy Prime Minister is strong decentralization to localities, especially the commune level, associated with inspection, supervision and handling of administrative violations.
According to the Deputy Prime Minister, food safety management plays a very important role at the grassroots level - the place that directly accesses people, production households, business establishments and daily consumption activities. Therefore, it is necessary to arrange appropriate specialized forces, and at the same time strengthen the responsibility of local authorities in management work.
The Deputy Prime Minister also requested to clarify the resources for implementing the project, specialized job positions on food safety at the commune level; and at the same time clearly define the responsibilities of each ministry and sector in developing standards, regulations, inspection, supervision and ensuring implementation conditions.
