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Deputy Minister of Finance, Vo Thanh Hung, speaking at the Conference

To date, the total number of Vietnamese public accounting standards announced by the Ministry of Finance is 16 standards.

Speaking at the conference "Announcement of 5 Vietnamese Public Accounting Standards Phase 3, Direction for Perfecting Legislation on Accounting in the Public Sector," organized by the Ministry of Finance in collaboration with the WB on July 10, Deputy Minister of Finance, Vo Thanh Hung, assessed that the 16 public accounting standards are an important, unified legal framework.

On this basis, units under and affiliated with the Ministry of Finance, based on their functions and tasks, study, train, and disseminate the content of the Vietnamese public accounting standards, applying good practices appropriately to serve as the basis for proposing and advising competent levels on reforming policy mechanisms in Vietnam's public sector.

According to the Deputy Minister, the role of public accounting is reflected in performing the functions of providing information and checking, monitoring the economic and financial activities of the State.

To have reliable and effective state financial reports, according to Deputy Minister Vo Thanh Hung, it is necessary to build and publish a system of public accounting standards suitable for international practices and the reality of Vietnam. This thereby has a basis to determine the target, scope, process, and content of state financial reports, contributing to building a safe, sustainable national financial system, and meeting the enhanced supervision requirements from elected bodies, social organizations, and citizens, capable of comparison and international recognition.

Sharing the same view, Ms. Patricia McKenzie, Director of Governance and Financial Management for East Asia and the Pacific at WB, stated that with the publication of the public accounting standards, Vietnam has laid the foundation for a transparent financial system and better accountability.

"Many countries around the world have implemented a program to build public accounting standards but had to pause or abandon it due to the level of difficulty involved. However, Vietnam has come a long way since 2019, showing a high level of leadership and direction from the executive body for strategic priorities to use financial resources effectively," the WB representative emphasized.

Along with the above benefits, Ms. Patricia McKenzie assessed that this also creates a ripple effect on investment attraction activities, especially towards the private investment sector and foreign investment sector, as the standards of public accounting help enhance the quality of government financial reports, giving investors more confidence and motivation to promote investment.

Conference announcing 5 Vietnamese Public Accounting Standards Phase 3, direction for perfecting legislation on accounting in the public sector

However, according to experts, after the issuance of public financial accounting standards, there is still much work to be done to implement these standards into practice. The WB representative emphasized the need to draw lessons from deployment to address bottlenecks and find solutions consistent with international practices.

According to Mr. Vu Duc Chinh, Director of the Accounting and Auditing Supervision Department (Ministry of Finance), the number of public accounting units is very large, and the scale and operating conditions vary. Therefore, to ensure feasibility, after being issued, public accounting standards will serve as templates and principles for enacting accounting regimes applied to accounting units in the state accounting sector as regulated by accounting law.

Specifically, the Ministry of Finance will base the system of public accounting standards and financial, budget mechanisms, to regulate and issue accounting regimes applicable to units in each field according to a suitable roadmap.

Previously, to guide the implementation of the Vietnamese public accounting standards, the Ministry of Finance issued Circular 24/2024/TT-BTC on April 17, 2024, guiding the administrative accounting regime replacing Circular No. 107/2017/TT-BTC dated October 10, 2017.

Accordingly, Circular 24 added guidance on accounting principles in accordance with Vietnamese Public Accounting Standards, such as specific guidance on the principles of recognizing revenue, expenses; addressing existing issues in accounting for funding receipts and tracking sources for the purchase of fixed assets, inventory, salary reform sources of the unit, and adjusting accounting data, ensuring that accounting records are performed uniformly and the financial report data of the unit are fully presented, suitable to help improve the quality of information provided for preparing state financial reports.