State Bank of Vietnam republishes General Secretary To Lam’s call to strengthen thrift and curb waste

The State Bank of Vietnam published on its portal a reprinted article, “Practicing thrift”, by Communist Party General Secretary To Lam, framing thrift and anti-waste as a shared responsibility and calling for stronger action to reduce waste in public spending, public asset management and administrative processes. The article flags persistent shortcomings in the effectiveness of thrift measures and points to losses and waste of state assets and the state budget. It calls for institutional reforms including studying amendments to the Law on Thrift Practice and Waste Prevention, cutting administrative procedures and compliance costs, shifting from ex ante approvals to ex post controls, and tightening discipline in the management and use of public finances and public assets, particularly buildings and land during public-sector restructuring. It links expected savings to planned administrative reorganisation, citing estimated recurrent state budget savings of more than VND 20,000bn per year for 2025–2030 and more than VND 30,000bn per year from 2030, alongside the repurposing of more than 18,500 public office sites. On timing, it sets a 2025 objective for 100% of administrative procedures related to businesses to be delivered online and for procedures to be usable without provincial administrative boundary constraints, alongside a call to move quickly on legal reforms.