Developing clearer classifications of power between governments on the local level is a high priority in Vietnam. There remain difficulties, for example with the implementation of the Law on Local Government Organisation, which became effective in 2016. Underlying reasons and possibilities to solve these challenges were also discussed in this symposium.

Session I of the symposium first compared theory and practice of the classification of power between local government levels in Vietnam. An introduction into theoretical issues on this topic was given by Prof. Dr. Nguyen Dang Dung of the Vietnam National University’s (VNU) Law Faculty. He argued that the term “decentralisation” was often avoided in Vietnam, even though together with devolution these would be crucial steps for the country’s development. The local level should fulfill the tasks it is able to successfully fulfill while the central level should only deal with those issues the local level does not have the capacities to handle. Key challenges, he furthermore argued, are overlapping responsibilities between different levels of government as well as local fiefdoms that are developing from local governments being supervised by local party committees.

Prof. Dr. Le Minh Thong, Chairperson of the Secretary of the National Assembly, argued that every country had its own model of local self-governance and that, due to manifold differences in preconditions and local circumstances, these models could not simply be copied, even though these models all build on principles widely considered to be universal. As one of the major shortcomings in Vietnam he identified the problem that the local levels are regarded as lower in hierarchy than the central government level. Apart from that, local levels should be granted more autonomy with regard to personnel and budget and they should also be acknowledged as public legal entities to enhance their self-governance possibilities.

In Session II, experts then turned towards recommendations for the classification of local government power in the Vietnamese context. This was done by a combination of representatives from five different provinces and municipalities talking about issues in local governance in these regions and experts commenting on these presentations. The provincial representatives reported many positive results with regard to local governmental power. They confirmed that deconcentration of power enabled them to make official procedures more efficient and to streamline their administrations. Apart from positive results, they also lamented unclear mandates, a lack of authority for budget and personnel decisions and the slow speed of deconcentration processes in Vietnam.

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