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| A discussion meeting of the staff of Quang Tri Province’s State Legal Aid Center No. 2__Photo: VNA |
Government Decree 121/2025/ND-CP, effective as of July 1, 2025, on the delegation and decentralization of powers to local administrations within the scope of state management of legal affairs by the Ministry of Justice (MOJ), especially the provision of legal aid for enterprises, is expected to improve the effectiveness and proactivity of the two-tier local administration system. However, the realization of the changes introduced in this Decree would face enormous challenges in terms of resources and professional capacity.
Commune-level administrations, especially in remote areas, are currently facing a shortage of officers with in-depth legal expertise, particularly in the enterprise law. This directly impacts the ability to provide effective and specialized legal aid services for enterprises. Commune-level state budget funds for legal aid activities remain insufficient for organization of regular and quality legal counseling activities, seminars and training courses. Commune-level officers also lack practical experience in resolving complicated legal problems for enterprises, especially larger enterprises or foreign-invested ones.
The coordination in the provision of legal aid for enterprises between provincial-level departments and commune-level specialized divisions and sections remains poor, leading to task overlapping or omission and delayed response to inquiries and requests of enterprises, since this has previously been a centrally managed and instructed domain and the absence of an effective two-way information mechanism between the provincial level and the commune level. Besides, each locality adopts its own approaches and procedures for providing legal aid for enterprises, resulting in a lack of uniformity and sometimes causing difficulties for enterprises when accessing legal aid services at different levels.
Enterprises themselves are facing challenges in identifying a competent agency (at the provincial or commune level) to resolve their legal issues, leading to a waste of time due to failure to “knock the right door”. In fact, needs of enterprises for legal aid services are diverse, ranging from very simple to highly complicated legal issues and solutions. Until the commune administrations’ capacity to meet these needs becomes satisfactory and commune-level legal aid services become effective and professional, enterprises may become reluctant to seek support from local administrations.
The evaluation of the effectiveness of legal aid services for enterprises following the decentralization of powers may be challenging due to the lack of specific performance indicators and uniform evaluation methods. At present, the mechanism for inspection and supervision by the superior level of the commune-level performance of legal aid services remains not stringent enough, leading to uneven and ineffective implementation of these activities in some localities, particularly deep-lying and remote areas.
To address the above challenges, local administrations should concentrate on several key solutions.
Firstly, they need to improve the qualifications and quality of human resources by providing more intensive and continuous training in business, investment, labor, tax, and intellectual property laws for officers involved in providing legal aid services for enterprises at both the provincial and commune levels. At the same time, they should facilitate the establishment of internal legal expert teams or develop linkages with reputable legal counseling organizations.
Secondly, local administrations should formulate specific regulations on coordination between administrative levels. These regulations must clearly define responsibilities, powers, procedures, and time limits for resolving legal issues faced by enterprises. In addition, they should develop a centralized legal information system that integrates data from both provincial and commune levels and strengthen the application of information technology in the management, monitoring, and evaluation of enterprise legal aid services.
Thirdly, it is necessary to diversify the forms of legal aid and enhance enterprises’ access to these services. This includes intensifying communication and dissemination efforts regarding the significance and available types of legal aid for enterprises, expanding counseling methods such as phone, email, online platforms, seminars, and workshops, building a network of collaborating lawyers and legal experts, and compiling and distributing easy-to-understand legal guidance materials.
Finally, local administrations should intensify the inspection, supervision, and evaluation of enterprise legal aid services. This requires the development of a set of specific indicators to assess the effectiveness of legal aid at each administrative level and the establishment of channels for regularly receiving feedback from enterprises on service quality so that timely improvements can be made.- (VLLF)
