Vietnam

UCLG COUNTRY PROFILES Vietnam Capital Population Area

: : :

Hanoi 86,927,700 (2010) 331,051.4 sq km

1. Introduction

1.1. General Information Vietnam is a socialist republic in south-east Asia. In 2010, it had a population of 86,927,700, with a growth rate of 1.05% and the UNDP Human Development Index (HDI) ratting was 0.572. The current land area is 331,051.4 sq km, and GDP in 2009 was 1,658,389 billion Dong.

Vietnam is a single-party socialist republic with the Communist Party of Vietnam as the leading force in both the state and society.

The National Assembly (NA) is the sole and highest representative body with both constitutional and legislative powers. NA elects both the State President and the Prime Minister, give approval to all Ministers recommended by the Government, exercise supreme supervision of all activities of the State, create Constitution and Laws, establish and dissolve ministries and ministerial level agencies of the Government, establish,

merge, divide and adjust the boundaries of the provinces and cities directly under the central authority and also establish or dissolve special administrative economic establishments.

The State President act as the Head of State and also as the chairman of The National Defense and Security assisted by the Vice President, the President’s Office and the National Defense and Security Council. The Government is the executive body of the National Assembly and the highest national administrative agency of the country, composed of Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Ministers, and Ministers and Heads of ministerial-level agencies, accountable to the National Assembly, the National Assembly’s Standing Committee and the President of State.

Supreme People’s Court is the highest judicial body of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. It consists of Chief Judge, Deputy Chief Judge, People’s Jurors and court secretaries.

Supreme People’s Procuracy is responsible to observe the implementation and respect for the Constitution and laws by all government officials and citizens; and to practice public prosecution as stipulated by laws, ensuring law enforcement; consists of the Head, elected or dismissed by NA according to State President’s recommendation, Deputy Heads, prosecutors and inspector which

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appointed or dismissed by State President by the Head’s request.

Administrative Committee existed in the urban municipality level.

Local Authorities consists of People’s Councils and People’s Committee at provincial, district and communal level; along with People’s Courts and People’s Procuracy at provincial and district level.

According to 1959 Constitution, the country was divided into provinces and cities under the direct authority of the central government; provinces were divided into district, provincial cities and towns; districts were divided into communes and townships. There were both People’s Council and Administrative Committee in each of the units. Cities could be divided into urban municipalities with both People’s Council and Administrative Committee. Since then up to now, there have been new constitutions of 1980, 1992 and further amendments, but the main structure of local government remains almost the same.

1.2.

Overview of Government’s Development

Local

The origin of Vietnamese local government dated back to the feudal time when the village played an important role in the life of the local people. At that time, mandarins were assigned by the central government to the regional and provincial (ky) and district (phu) levels, but at the lowest level (tong), there were local representatives (chanh tong, ly truong) who ran the local activities. This lasted until the French colonial rule in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

After the Independence in August 1945, President Ho Chi Minh signed Decree-Law 63/SL of November 22nd, 1945 on the organization of People’s Council and Administrative Committee of communes, districts, provinces and regions, and Decree-Law 77/SL of December 21st, 1945 on the organization of People’s Council and Administrative Committee of cities and urban municipalities (khu pho). These two decree-laws provided that local authorities comprised four levels: regions (kú) (Northern Region, Central Region, and Southern Region), provinces, districts and communes. There were two levels of administration in the cities under the direct authority of the central government, namely the city level and the urban municipality level. While there were both People’s Council and Administrative Committee at the city level, only

The 1992 Constitution refers to local governments as administrative units. Local governments in Vietnam have a popularly elected council, People’s Council, which is defined as the local body of state power: it is accountable not only to the local people but also to the superior state organs. Its executive body, People’s Committee, on the other hand, is defined as the local body of state administration, which is responsible for implementing the normative documents issued by higher level state organs as well as the resolutions of its People’s Council. Vietnam is a socialist republic where democratic centralism is the principle governing the organization and activity of all state organs including the local governments.

Within this overall framework, however, Vietnam has been proceeding with its decentralization policy as the country moves towards a market economy. The center still exerts substantial control, but local governments are gaining more responsibilities and powers, particularly at the provincial level, since mid-1990s.

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As of 1998 the country has been giving greater priority to grassroots democracy which has considerably increased the participation of the public in state affairs.

2. Territorial organization 2.1. Government Tiers and Their Nature Vietnam use three-tier local government system: provincial, district and commune levels. Each level is divided into different categories of administrative units.

As capital city, Hanoi is provided with additional objectives, policies, distribution of responsibilities and decentralization of state management for the development and protection of the capital.

Organizational structure and relations with other levels of government basically same with other provinces with some additional tasks and responsibilities related to urban management as a centrally-controlled city.

2.2. Financial Indicators Below are some figures indicating increasing significance of local governments in state budget expenditure and public investment:

3. Local Democracy

As of 31 December 2010, local administrative divisions in Vietnam consists of 54 provincial cities, 47 urban districts, 43 towns, 553 rural districts, 1403 wards, 624 town districts and 9085 communes, each with its own representative and executive body (People’s Council and People’s Committee). National population density is 263 persons/square km, with local population range from 7,396,500 in Ho Chi Minh City to 296,500 in Bac Kan province. 70% (60.7 million) of total population reside in rural area, while only 30% (26.3 million) live in the urban area.

Vietnam has three centrally-controlled cities: Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh and Da Nang which has provincial equivalent authority.

3.1. Local Political System Since Vietnam is a single-party state, the Communist Party is the only political party that can run candidates for elections.

However, an individual does not need to be a Party member to stand for an election.

Any Vietnamese citizen, upon reaching the age of 21, has the right to stand for election to the National Assembly and the People's Councils in accordance with the provisions of the law. All candidates are either nominated by an organization or self-nominated.

People’s Councils at all levels are elected through universal and equal suffrage and direct and secret ballot. Voting age is 18.

Elections of People’s Council deputies take III

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place once in every five years. The Law on Election of People’s Council Deputies determines the number of seats for each locality based primarily on the population size. Voters are distributed into electoral constituencies, each of which shall not elect more than five deputies. Each voter is to choose as many candidates as the number of deputies to be elected at the electoral unit. Successful candidates are those who won more than half of valid votes. Election Councils, in which the Vietnam Fatherland Front plays a leading role, assume responsibility to screen nominations and finalize lists of candidates through a series of meetings (including those involving representatives of voters).

Each People’s Council elects the chairman, vice chairs and members of its executive body, People’s Committee. While People's Committee functions as People’s Council’s executive body, it is responsible for implementing the Constitution, laws, normative documents of superior state organs, as well as the resolutions of the People's Council. The People’s Committee chairman can be removed from office by decisions of the People’s Council of the same locality, or of the chairman of People’s Committee at the immediate higher level. On the other hand, the People’s Committee chairman does not have the power to dissolve People’s Council at the same level. People’s Council, if its actions are seen as causing serious harm to the interest of the people, may be dissolved by People’s Council at the immediate higher level. While People’s Committee (or its chairman) is not subject to a recall process, People’s Council deputies, if they lost confidence of the people, may be dismissed by voters, according to the Law on Organization of People’s Councils and People’s Committees.

3.2.

Citizen participation

Since voting is mandatory by Law Vietnam, voter turnout in elections generally close to 100%. More than million voters went to the polls for the May 2011 election.

in is 62 22

Over 90 percent of the lawmakers were elected from the ruling Communist Party, only 14 (of the 500) were not party members.

Direct democracy at local level in Vietnam is known as grassroots democracy which was promoted through the Politburo Directive in February 1998 with its general principles which reflected in the motto: “the people know, the people discuss, the people implement, and the people review” (dan biet, dan ban, dan lam, dan kiem tra). Through this grassroots democracy, local citizens are able not only to discuss but also decide directly on issues including policies and levels of contributions for the construction of infrastructure and publicwelfare facilities (electricity supply, roads, schools, health stations, cemeteries, cultural and sport facilities); establishment of inspection committees for construction works built with the people's contributions; and protection of production and business, maintenance of security, order, social safety and environmental sanitation as well as other activities in communes and villages.

While the commune is the lowest level of government, rural communes generally consist of a group of natural villages, and urban communes (wards) are divided into a number of resident groups. Villages and resident groups are semi-formal, selfgoverning institutions, which also perform a wide range of administrative duties under commune/ward authorities.

Villagers/residents choose their leaders through elections, in which there is no official control of nominations.

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Villages/resident groups are have their own local codes social relations within the which are to be approved People’s Committee chairman.

allowed to to regulate community, by district

4. Central-local relationship

4.1. General Issues The Constitution stipulates that the establishment of People's Councils and People's Committees in administrative units is determined by law. The current local government structure and centrallocal authority relations are described in two types of legal documents: general documents related to the political and government system of the country (e.g.

1992 Constitution and the 2001revision, Law on the Organization of the People’s Councils and People’s Committees of 1994) and legal documents related to various social, economy and cultural aspects under jurisdiction of line ministries (i.e. wide range of legal documents regarding economy, cultural, education, social, health-care, security and defense management). Countrywide debates to amend the three-tier local government had occurred since it is theoretically possible to eradicate People’s Council and or People’s Committee at certain level without any amendments of the constitution.

To synchronize sectoral and territorial management, local government in Vietnam is subjected to dual subordination. People’s Committee at each level is subordinate of People’s Council at the same level and the state administration body at the immediate higher level. Sectoral departments are subjected to the higher level sectoral departments in implementing its professional tasks and to the People’s Committee at their respective level for

organizational, logistic, personnel and fiscal issues. People’s Council is subject to the supervision from Standing Committee of the National Assembly and the Cabinet.

4.2. Supervision of Local Government Local governments are supervised by both the immediate upper level government and respective People’s Council. The Law on Organization of People’s Councils and People’s Committees granted The People’s Committee chairman the power to:  Approve the result of election of People’s Committee members at the immediate lower level.  Rotate, suspend, release from duty, or remove from office the People’s Committee chairman and vice chairs at the immediate lower level.  Suspend the implementation or abolish illegal normative documents of People’s Committee or People’s Committee chairman at the immediate lower level.  Suspend the implementation of illegal resolutions of People’s Council at the immediate lower level and propose People’s Council at the same level to abolish them.

Supervision of provincial People’s Committee and People’s Council is performed by the Prime Minister.

In the financial area, local governments are also under broad supervision of upper level state organs. Prime Minister is allowed to suspend the implementation resolutions on finance and budget made by provincial People’s Councils if considered contradictory to provisions of the Constitution, laws, resolutions of the National Assembly, ordinances, resolutions of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly or legal documents issued by upper-level state agencies, and further propose abolishment to the Standing Committee of the National Assembly which possess the authority to repeal these V

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resolutions. Local budgets as well as other financial and budgetary issues require examination and final approval from The Cabinet. People’s Councils and People’s

Committees at each levels of local government possess equivalent authority towards the immediate lower level government.

Central government does conduct inspections toward local regulations through the Department of Document Examination established in 2003under the Ministry of Justice, even though in practice severe measures of People’s Committee chairman discharge or termination of People’s Council rarely happened. Local governments are responsible for implementing normative documents issued by higher level authorities as well as by the local legislative. Field offices of central ministries which are not subject to local authorities are exceptional, mainly in tax, police and army sectors.

4.3. Protection of Local SelfGovernment Rights and Interest The Association of Cities of Vietnam (ACVN) is the only local governments association in Vietnam. With 96 cities as its members, ACVN which was founded voluntarily in 1992 by five provincial cities (Viet Tri, Nam Dinh, Vinh, Hue and Da Nang) conducting dual role as Non Governmental Organization (NGO) and Social Professional Organization to present its members with continuous experience exchange, mainly through its website (www.acvn.vn).

ACVN then later inaugurated by the Prime Minister in 17 July 2000 through Decree No. 45/2000/QD-BTCCBCP.

5. Local responsibilities and functions

During the early years of its independence, local government in Vietnam has little discretion in governing their territory.

However, decentralization has developed rapidly in the past two decades, started with the issuance of The Ordinance of 1996. The Ordinance positioned People’s Committees at all levels to be responsible to plan policy details as well as organizing its implementation which had been applied to wide range of practice. The director for provincial tax department is appointed by the Central General Department of Taxation, with approval from the head of respective People’s Committee.

Tax collection is performed by the provincial department, while the size of local government personnel is established by the Ministry of Home Affairs. Compliant with the current legislation, all levels of local governments are included in several public services provisions such as education, healthcare, public transportation and water supply in a decentralized manner. While the central government is responsible for higher level services, the lower level services are the responsibilities of the different local government levels.

The functions and responsibilities of local government units are detailed in both existing general and sector based legal documents. The Ordinance on the Tasks and Authority of People’s Councils and People’s Committees of 1996 details the functions and responsibilities of People’s Councils and People’s Committees at all levels.

Each administrative level is assigned a comprehensive range of responsibilities in its territory. According to the Ordinance, People’s Councils at all levels are granted authority to decide on plans (quyet dinh ke hoach) and policy lines (quyet dinh chu truong) as well as to supervise (giam sat). They can decide on VI

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long and short-term plans on economic development; population; land use, culture, education and society; defense, security and social order; nationality and religious policies; and the maintenance of law and order.

In education, for example, while the central government looks after curricula and materials of education to ensure the unity in the whole country and especially the tertiary and higher education, the provincial People’s Committee is in charge of secondary education, the district authority is in charge of primary education manages teacher training colleges, vocational schools, high schools, and continuing education schools, maintains teaching standards, administers students’ examinations, issues diplomas according to the law, and carries out educational inspection according to the Ministry of Education and Training's guidelines.

District People’s Committees manage basic primary and secondary schools, organize the network of kindergarten and preschool classes, implement the policy of socialization of education within the territory of the district, and implement illiteracy eradication and other regulations pertaining to teachers and examinations.

For urban and territorial planning, People’s Committees at all levels are responsible for implementing central government policies on agricultural extension, disease prevention, land management, reforestation, and irrigation. Provincial People’s Committees is responsible to formulate both long term and annual socioeconomic development plans, and present them to their corresponding People’s Councils for approval. District People’s Committees are responsible for drafting annual socio-economic plans and submit them to the upper echelon for approval, approve communes’ plans for economic

and social development, road plans in their jurisdiction and recommend location for capital construction projects to province and central ministries. Commune People’s Committees are responsible for formulating annual plans and submitting them for approval.

In the area of social services, People’s Committees at all levels implement the policies of the People’s Council and the central government on health, family planning, social relief and poverty alleviation.

6. Local finance and management

6.1. Local Government Incomes From a legal perspective, local public administrations are just dismemberment or local embodiment of the State. Their budget is simply part of the state budget and, in principle, only serves to implement at the local level the plan defined at the national level. The Budget Law (2003) stipulates three types of revenue sources for the state budget: revenues assigned 100% to central government, revenues assigned 100% to local governments and revenues to be shared between the central and local governments. Sources of revenues assigned 100% to the local governments include land and housing taxes, natural resources taxes excluding those on petroleum activities, license tax, land use rights transfer tax, land rent, revenues from the leasing and sale of publicly owned houses, registration fees and most other fees and charges. Sources of revenues to be shared between the central and local levels include VAT (excluding VAT on imports), corporate income tax (excluding corporate income tax on enterprises with uniform accounting), income tax on high-income VII

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earners, special consumption tax on domestic goods and services, and gasoline and oil fees.

The rates for sharing revenues between different levels of governments are not fixed by the Budget Law. The Standing Committee of the National Assembly is to decide the sharing rates between the central and provincial governments for each period of three to five years. The sharing rates are uniform for all shared taxes for each province, but they differ by provinces. Revenue sharing rates among local levels are to be decided by the provincial People’s Councils. In addition, communes, district towns, towns and provincial cities may mobilize voluntary contributions from organizations and individuals for investment in infrastructure construction in the locality. The provincial People’s Councils have the power to decide on the collection of people’s contributions.

Revenues from such contributions are not adequately covered by official budget documents, although the Law requires that all state budget revenues including contributions by organizations and individuals must be fully accounted for in the state budget.

6.2. Local Government Personnel and Management Based on the Law on Public Officials and Civil Servants, public personnel in Vietnam can be classified into: 1. Civil Servants (Cong Chuc): Work for the Party, socio-political organizations and administrative agencies on permanent term.

2. Public Officials (Can Bo):Civil servants that work for fixed term.

3. Commune Officials (Can Bo) and Commune Servants (Cong Chuc Cap Xa): Civil servants or public officials work at the commune level.

Officers at commune level are divided into: 1. Elected Officers (e.g. chairman and vice chairman of the People’s Committee) 2. Appointed Officers (consists of professional staffs).

The law does not cover the “Public Employee” (Vien Chuc) group who work for public service delivery agencies and this group will be subject to another law.

Civil servants have four categories of classification: Senior Experts (Group A), Principle Experts (Group B), Experts (Group C) and Below Expert (Group D).

There are no precise statistics regarding the number of public personnel. The estimated number of public officials and civil servants is: working at the central, provincial and districts levels: 300,000; working in public service delivery agencies: 1,400,000; commune officials 200,000.

Civil service in Vietnam is basically career based. Civil servants enter the civil service through a competitive recruitment process followed by a probationary period. After successful completion of the probationary period officers would generally expect to move up the grading scale.

The achievement of a higher grade has great influence on career opportunities for management and leadership positions. For example, candidates for department directors must have principal expert level.

Promotion is mainly based on seniority and the results of corps promotional examinations. Generally, it takes nine years to be promoted from expert to principal expert level and six years from principal expert to senior expert.

The Ho Chi Minh National Political Academy and the National Academy of Public Administration (Trang Chính) are the national level training institutions for civil VIII

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servants. While the former is responsible mainly for political and ideological training, the latter is in charge of civil service training in state management. The academies develop training programs and materials in accordance with the mandate given, and provide training for middle and senior cadres and civil servants at both central and local levels.

companies to have difficulties to create profit and constrict their capacity and capital to perform required service.

Since the National Party held its 9th Congress in April 2001, immediate adjustments of policies and measures has been done as the result of Public Administration Reform (PAR) implementation in order to build a democratic, transparent, sustainable and modern public administration. Following a long period of preparation, on September 17th, 2001, Decision No. 136/2001/QDTTg on promulgating the PAR Master Program for the 2001-2010 Period was signed by the Prime Minister for issuance.

The main objectives of PAR are: 1. Adjusting functions and improving the operational Government mechanism, the principle of multi-sector and fieldministery management.

2. Delegation and decentralization.

3. Separating the state management function from production and business activities, and public administration agencies from public service delivery agencies.

4. Further reforming state-owned enterprises and administrative procedures.

5. Developing a contingent of professional and qualified civil servants.

6. Strengthening order, and 7. Fighting red-tape and corruption.

However, privatization of public service is rare. All public services are supervised by central government as an effort to ensure balanced distribution of service as well as to prevent inadequacy. This caused private IX