The State Budget Transparency Portal of Vietnam

Vietnam scored 17 out of 100 for public participation, beating the global average of 14 and jumping 6 points since 2019. Duong Tien Dung, Deputy Director of the State Budget Department of the Ministry of Finance, said the improvement is partly due to Vietnam’s policy-making process, in which the government collects the opinions of all agencies and the public to ensure policy feasibility and efficiency.

“The government has encouraged community participation. We have made public the budget and the budget estimate before submitting it to the National Assembly. We have allowed people and organizations to contribute ideas to improve the budget estimate,” Dung said.

Ngo Minh Huong, Director of the Development and Integration Center, said that in order to improve budget transparency it’s necessary to have a regular mechanism for people to oversee the budget allocation.

“The Finance Ministry should pilot a mechanism that allows the public to be involved in budget disbursement. The National Assembly has organized budget hearings and collected deputies’ opinions. The hearings should have a mechanism to allow individuals and social organizations to submit their ideas, particularly on the draft budget estimate before it’s approved by the National Assembly. The State Audits should have an official mechanism for public participation in building audit plans,” said Huong.

The Finance Ministry has conducted four open budget surveys since 2015 and recorded significant progress each time. The Finance Ministry says it will continue to improve State budget transparency and make sure budgets at localities, ministries, and sectors strictly abide by the Law on State Budget.