Approaching international practices on publicaton of public debt

News-letter issued by the Ministry of Finance on public debt has been publicized on the website of the Ministry.

The Ministry of Finance informed: To publicize the information about public debt complies with the provisions of Article 47 of the Law on Public Debt Management No.29/2009/QH and Decree No.79/2010/ND-CP of the Government on public debt management operations.

Accordingly, the information about public debt includes total debt balance, the domestic debt structure, the foreign debt of the Government and government-guaranteed debt, local government debt, data of received loans and repayments made annually, the monitoring indicators of government debt, public debt and the foreign debt of the country.

The provision of information about public debt will be done through an issued News-letter about public debt and published every 6 months in Vietnamese and translated into English in publications and data on the website of the Ministry of Finance.

In implementation of the provisions mentioned above, in recent times, the Ministry of Finance has organized the collection of information, report and publicly providing information about the public debt through published News-letter Nos. 01, 02, 03 and 04 on public debt and posted on the website of the Ministry of Finance.

In addition to the regular newsletter, the release of information about government bonds, bonds guaranteed by the Government, and local government bonds in the domestic market are publicly available on the electronic information page of the Ministry of Finance, Hanoi Stock Exchange Department with detail of amount, rates and terms released, while bonds that have been issued and registered, deposited and the transaction focusing on the market of government bonds at the Hanoi Stock Exchange Department.

Furthermore, to serve the oversight work of the Congress and the operation of Government, the Ministry of Finance has thematic reports on the public debt situation. Since the beginning of the session of the 13th National Assembly till now, the Ministry of Finance on behalf of the Government has reported to the Congress about the use of loans and public debt management.

Annually, the Ministry of Finance has reported on the plan to borrow and repay to the Government, monitoring indicators of public debt and external debt of the country based on the functions and tasks assigned or upon extraordinary requests from the Congress, President, Prime Minister or related authorities.

Public information on public debt under current regulations constitutes a gradual approach to international practices, consistent with the situation in Vietnam, ensuring the implementation of Vietnam's commitments on the provision and disseminating the data to be in line with international organizations of which Vietnam is a member, such as the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and ASEAN.

However, according to the Ministry of Finance, due to public debt violations on a large scale, dispersed management of public debt, providing data on loan and repayment of some ministries and agencies, localities, project owners and units, which use slow capital led to the untimely disclosure of information.

To address this situation, in Directive No.02/CT-TTg on strengthening management and improving the efficiency of public debt, the Prime Minister has directed to continue to improve coordination mechanisms, exchange and promote the application of information technology to ensure the timely disclosure of information about public debt.