Reducing focal points and procedures, addressing overlaps

According to the Government’s submission, the official name of the consolidated Programme is the “National target programme on cultural and social development, rural areas, ethnic minority areas and mountainous areas for the 2026-2035 period”. These are originally four existing national target programmes covering the following areas: culture; education and training; new-style rural areas, poverty reduction, and development of ethnic minority and mountainous areas; and healthcare, population and development. The National target programme on drug prevention and control through 2030 will continue to be implemented separately under Resolution No. 163/2024/QH15 due to its specific nature of ensuring security and social order.

Clarifying the current management situation of the programmes, at a recent explanation session before the National Assembly Standing Committee, Minister of Finance Ngo Van Tuan said that the total capital mobilised for the 2026-2030 period was estimated at 808.558 trillion VND, of which the central budget would account for 345 trillion VND. The Government has oriented the budget structure towards approximately 75% public investment capital and 25% recurrent expenditure. Despite many noteworthy results, overlapping and various shortcomings still persist. In terms of institutions and decentralisation mechanisms, the biggest bottleneck in recent times has been the large number of guidance documents issued by different ministries, sectors and localities. This situation has led to a fear of making mistakes and slow disbursement of capital due to cumbersome procedures.

Therefore, according to the Minister of Finance, the Government has proposed solutions to unify the name, restructure the content and renew the management mechanism in order to safeguard the results already achieved and improve budget efficiency. Following integration, the Government will make a strong shift from allocating resources “according to registered needs” to “according to capacity and readiness for implementation”, eliminating intermediary layers. Specifically, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment will serve as the overall coordinating agency. The Ministry of Finance will be responsible for consolidating, allocating and reallocating capital. Localities will independently select project lists and prioritise capital, while taking full responsibility for quality and progress, based on the principle that “localities decide, localities implement, localities take responsibility”.

Basically agreeing with the policy of integration, members of the National Assembly Standing Committee nevertheless proposed that after integration, actual effectiveness must be measurable in terms of the number of focal points, procedures, the time taken to allocate capital and whether capital must be carried forward. Most importantly, the effectiveness of integration must be assessed by whether resources reach places in greater need, whether localities have greater autonomy, and whether people can access policies more effectively and benefit from them more fully.

Integration cannot be a mechanical addition

The actual implementation of national target programmes in recent times shows that bottlenecks lie not only in funding but mainly in management methods. The current situation, with numerous focal points, multiple guidance documents, complicated coordination procedures and fragmented allocation mechanisms, has significantly affected the pace of disbursement, the ability to absorb capital and implementation efficiency.

Therefore, integrating four national target programmes into a new comprehensive national programme must first and foremost involve renewing the organisation of resources and implementation methods, rather than being a mechanical addition. The integration must inherit the objectives already decided by the National Assembly and must not narrow the scope, target groups or level of priority in terms of beneficiaries.

At the same time, it is necessary to clearly distinguish between “duplication” and “overlap”. A locality or household benefiting from policies on infrastructure, livelihoods, education, healthcare or culture does not constitute duplication if each policy addresses a different need. Only genuinely overlapping content in terms of objectives, target groups and support content should be integrated and eliminated; specific policies must continue to be guaranteed resources and monitored separately, in order to create a synergistic effect among resources in the same locality without diluting policies that need to be prioritised.

In particular, a crucial point requiring change is the need for substantive decentralisation and delegation of authority, following the principle that “the Central Government, the National Assembly and the Government play the role of creating the conditions for development”, as National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man emphasised when referring to the role of localities: “Localities decide, localities implement, localities take responsibility”. However, Chairman Tran Thanh Man noted that the issue is not merely about redefining authority, but about changing the way the State organises policy implementation. The central level needs to focus on defining objectives, criteria, norms and supervision mechanisms; localities must have sufficient autonomy to choose approaches appropriate to their actual conditions.

At the same time, “authority must go hand in hand with responsibility”. When localities are given greater autonomy in using resources, the central level must make a strong shift from controlling inputs to controlling outcomes. “To do so, the programme must have a clear and consistent system of objectives, indicators and outputs that can be measured,” the National Assembly Chairman pointed out, requiring that: “Disbursement indicators and the level of achievement of objectives must be updated so that capital can be promptly reallocated from places with slow implementation to those performing well.”

The policy of merging the four national target programmes has been discussed very clearly by the Politburo. The essence and main objective of this integration is to thoroughly address fragmentation, overlaps and multiple focal points, minimise administrative compliance costs and promote decentralisation in the management of budget resources. This is a way to ensure that decentralisation does not become a relaxation of management, while the central level can still manage the programme without having to intervene in the specific work of localities.”

National Assembly Chairman TRAN THANH MAN