Despite progress in some areas in Vietnam's fight against corruption, the overall situation as measured by the Transparency International corruption index has failed to improve, the chief government inspector said.
Vietnam's chief government inspector Huynh Phong Tranh
Transparency International reported Vietnam's 2014 Corruption Perceptions Index was 31 points out of 100, ranking it 119th out of 175 countries measured. Vietnam's position had remained unchanged since 2012.
Chief government inspector Huynh Phong Tranh told a seminar on anti-corruption for better development, held in Hanoi on December 9, that the result "means the situation has not been improved and we need to put in more effort and measures to fix the problem."
Deputy Chief Government Inspector Tran Duc Luong said the government was concerned about Vietnam's failure to make greater inroads into corruption.
But Luong noted that despite intensified efforts to fight corruption in China, that country fell four points on the index.
He said Vietnam was holding steady, but there had been improvements in some fields, which were not reflected in the index measure. However, the overall picture was poor and people remained concerned that corruption was damaging society.
Luong said Vietnam still needs to try harder and make use of such means as the Internet in its anti-corruption campaign.
