Collect direct comments to prepare guidelines of the Law on management and use of public assets

The conference.

Speaking at the conference, Deputy Minister of Finance Tran Van Hieu said: Recently, Law on Management and Use of public property was approved by the National Assembly XIV. This is a very important document, creating a legal basis to strengthen disciplinary discipline, especially improving the quality of public asset management while promoting the highest efficiency in using public property along with other social assets, resources.

For the Law to come to life soon and achieve the target, many tasks need to be implemented urgently as propaganda that helps all levels and branches fully understand the provisions of the Law; promptly issue legal documents under the Law to guide and clarify the issues that the Law assigns to the Government to regulate in detail the performance under the spirit of the Law.

Agreed with him, Mr. Nguyen Huu Quang, Deputy Chairman of the National Assembly's Finance - Budget Committee, said that the Law on Management and Use of Public Assets is a difficult law that is not only because the regulations have to adjust a large volume of valuable assets, but the subjects of application of the Law are still very wide, from state management agencies, socio-political organizations to non-business units.

In order to implement the Law to really meet the expectations of constituent and people in the country, it is very important to issue specific, precise documents, circulars under the Law. This requires the contributions, and intellectual contributions from the ministries and branches as well as improving the feasibility of the documents after the promulgation.

At the conference, a representative of the Public Property Administration - Ministry of Finance introduced briefly the contents of the Law as well as the draft Decrees of the Government, the Decision of the Prime Minister guiding the specific contents were prepared by the Ministry of Finance.

According to Mr. Nguyen Tan Thinh, Deputy Director General of the Public Property Administration, six documents have been finalized by the Ministry of Finance for collecting comments from ministries, sectors, localities, and people; 3 documents are in the process of improvement that ensures the progress. The point of view of the drafting agency as developing the sub-law documents is not to mention the contents of the law stated clearly; it only stipulates the contents that the Law assigns to the Government to regulate in detail.

"Due to complicated orders and procedures related to the management and use of public assets, it should have strict regulations. If the regulations are not suitable, causing problems in the implementation leading to fixing, it will be very difficult. Therefore, the Ministry of Finance has just sent a document asking for opinions and held face-to-face meetings directly with the units for comments”, Mr. Thinh said.

At the conference, the representatives of the Public Property Administration answered questions of the representatives of the units and acknowledged the comments of representatives of the Ministry of Health, Ministry of National Defense, Ministry of Education and Training, The Vietnamese Academy of Science and Technology, Voice of Vietnam, ...

After the conference, the Ministry of Finance will combine it with other documents to receive and finalize documents before submitting to the Government for promulgation in the September and October, ensure the Law on Management and Use public property to give full play to the meaning when applied.

Mr. Aeron Batten – Country economist at the Asian Development Bank’s Vietnam Resident Mission

The new Public Property Management and Use Act has broadened the scope of the public asset management system and introduced very important concepts such as asset management over the life cycle as well as showing respect of the Government in the exploitation and maintenance to the public assets - an important issue in Vietnam today. The law also opens up new opportunities for strengthening public-private partnerships to promote creativity, improves operational efficiency, and reduce costs of the state budget.

In addition, the Law also enhances transparency and accountability in the management of state assets, enhances disclosure of property information and facilitates community to participare more closely and meaningfully in monitoring and management of the public property.

These reforms are a positive step, however, in the view of ADB, Vietnam still needs to make further efforts to ensure that the law is effectively implemented in practice through detailed guidelines.

The ADB is pleased to provide technical assistance to Vietnam to develop these guidelines and is willing to continue supporting Vietnam's development in infrastructure.