Associate. Prof. Dr. Pham Duy Nghia from Fulbright Vietnam University cited the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ statistics updated by late March this year that said the country had around 11 million people who receive salary or subsidies from the state budget. Of the total, around 1.3 million were at ward and commune levels.
Associate. Prof. Dr. Pham Duy Nghia from Fulbright Vietnam University
According to Nghia, Vietnam is among Asian country with the highest number of state workers.
According to Nghia, redundancy payments were among factors pressuring the country’s budget. He suggested re-arranging administrative agencies at commune and district levels first then gradually moving to provincial level.
It was also necessary to separate social organisation from being managed by the state, Nghia noted.
Prof. Dr. Hoang Chi Bao, former member of the Central Theoretical Council, said that when former US President Barack Obama visited Vietnam in 2016, he was surprised by the number of people employed by the government.
The State Audit of Vietnam recently suggested that around 57,175 public workers on the payroll were actually not needed. Vinh Phuc Province was among localities most obviously suffering from this problem.
Up to 38 of the 45 members of the province’s education department are managers, and out of the 12 people who work for the province’s home affairs department, nine hold management positions, the State Audit of Vietnam reported.
To improve the situation, the government recently approved hiring nearly 260,000 new state employees in 2019, about 2% and 7% lower than in 2015.