Notable new policies of Vietnam to be effective as of the start of March 2025

1. Organizational and operational principles of Government of Vietnam from March 1, 2025 

On February 19, 2025, the National Assembly of Vietnam approved the Law on Government Organization 2025, which comes into force as of March 1, 2025 and replaces the Law on Government Organization 2015. 

According to the Law, the organizational and operational principles of Government of Vietnam are as follows:  

- Complying with the Constitution and the law, carrying out social management using the Constitution and the law, implementing the centralized principle of democracy, and ensuring gender equality. 

- Organizing the administrative apparatus for multi-sector and multi-field management in a streamlined, efficient, and effective manner; ensuring the principles of inferior agencies complying with the leadership, directives, and decisions of superior agencies.

- Dividing the tasks, entitlements, and responsibilities between the Government of Vietnam and the Prime Minister of Vietnam and Ministers and Directors of ministerial agencies and the functions and management scope among ministries and ministerial agencies; ensuring the principles of collective leadership, responsible individuals, and promotion of personal responsibility of heads. 

- Ensuring reasonable decentralization between the Government of Vietnam and local governments, consistent management rights of the Government of Vietnam, and promoting local governments' proactivity, creativity, and self-responsibility. 

- Implementing national management in a modern, effective, and efficient direction; developing consistent, smooth, continuous, democratic, rule-of-law, professional, modern, scientific, clean, public, transparent, and disciplinary administrative affairs and creating a convenient environment for people and enterprises; serving the People and complying with the People’s supervision and inspection. 

- Proactively participating, closely cooperating, and intensifying the control of the Government of Vietnam over the national administrative affairs and the implementation of legislative and judicial rights. 

2. Division of authority of local governments in Vietnam from March 1, 2025 

On February 19, 2025, the National Assembly of Vietnam approved the Law on Local Government Organization 2025. 

The division of authority of local governments is stipulated as follows:  

- The tasks and entitlements of local governments at all levels shall be determined based on the division of authority between central state authorities and local state authorities and of local governments at all levels by decentralization. 

- The division of authority of local governments shall ensure the following principles: 

+ Clearly determining the content and scope of tasks and entitlements local governments may decide, implement, and take responsibility for the results; 

+ Preventing overlapping in terms of tasks and entitlements between central and local state authorities, among local governments at all levels, and among agencies and organizations of local governments; 

+ Ensuring conformity with the characteristics of urban areas, rural areas, islands, and special administrative-economic divisions and the capability and conditions for implementing tasks and entitlements of local governments at all levels.  Agencies, organizations, and individuals assigned to implement tasks and entitlements of superior state authorities shall have their necessary conditions for implementing such tasks and entitlements ensured; 

+ Ensuring publicity, transparency, and accountability and effectively implementing the control of power in association with the superior state authorities’ inspection and supervision responsibilities; promptly adjusting the content of decentralization when the decentralized agencies, organizations, and individuals fail to implement their assigned tasks and entitlements effectively; 

+ Ensuring the consistent implementation of the Constitution and the law; 

+ Satisfying local management requirements; applying science, technology, innovation, and digital transformation; 

+ Issues concerning the scope of 2 or more commune-level administrative divisions shall be subject to the jurisdiction of district-level local governments; issues concerning the scope of 2 or more district-level administrative divisions shall be subject to the jurisdiction of provincial local governments; issues concerning the scope of 2 or more provincial administrative divisions shall be subject to the jurisdiction of central state authorities unless otherwise prescribed by laws and resolutions of the National Assembly of Vietnam. 

- Local governments may proactively provide proposals for competent authorities regarding the decentralization to competent local agencies, organizations, and individuals for the implementation of tasks and entitlements in conformity with the local capability and conditions. 

- The stipulation of tasks and entitlements of local governments and agencies of local governments in legislative documents shall conform with the Law on Local Government Organization 2025, ensuring that state powers are effectively controlled. 

The Law on Local Government Organization 2025 comes into force as of March 1, 2025, excluding the case prescribed in Clause 3 Article 50 of the Law on Local Government Organization 2025. 

The amended Law on Local Government Organization 2015 shall cease to have effect from the effective date of the Law on Local Government Organization 2025, excluding the case prescribed in Clause 3 Article 50 of the Law on Local Government Organization 2025. 

3. Ministry of Home Affairs of Vietnam’s organizational structure from March 1, 2025

On February 21, 2025, the Government of Vietnam promulgated Decree No. 25/2025/ND-CP on functions, tasks, entitlements, and organizational structure of the Ministry of Home Affairs of Vietnam, which comes into force as of March 1, 2025 and replaces Decree No. 62/2022/ND-CP and Decree No. 63/2022/ND-CP.

According to the Decree, the organizational structure of the Ministry of Home Affairs of Vietnam includes: 

(1)  Organization and Personnel Administration.

(2) Local Administration Department.

(3) Department of State Employees and Servants.

(4) Department of Non-Governmental Organization.

(5) Administrative Reform Department.

(6) Department of Youth Affairs and Gender Equality.

(7)  International Cooperation Department.

(8) Department of Personnel and Organization.

(9) Department of Legislation.

(10) Department of Planning and Finance.

(11) Ministry Inspectorate.

(12) Ministry Office.

(13) State Records Management and Archives Agency.

(14) Department of Salary and Social Insurance. 

(15) Department of Employment. 

(16) Overseas Labor Agency. 

(17) Department of Meritorious Persons. 

(18) Central Emulation-Commendation Committee. 

(19) Information Technology Center. 

(20)  Institute on State Organizational Sciences and Labor.

(21)  State Organization and Labor Journal. 

(22) Dan Tri Newspaper.

Units prescribed from (1) through (18) are administrative organizations assisting the Minister in the state management; units prescribed from (19) through (22) are public service providers serving the state management function of the Ministry. 

The Minister of Home Affairs of Vietnam shall promulgate decisions on functions, tasks, entitlements, and organizational structure of units of the Ministry and present decisions on the list of other public service providers of the Ministry to the Prime Minister of Vietnam as per regulation. 

4. Processes of subject-matter judicial expertise in health in Vietnam from March 1, 2025 

On January 13, 2025, the Minister of Health of Vietnam promulgated Circular No. 03/2025/TT-BYT on subject-matter judicial expertise in health, effective as of March 1, 2025. 

According to the Circular, subject-matter judicial expertise according to judicial expertise solicitations and requests shall be carried out as follows: 

- Receiving relevant records, subjects, information, documents, objects, and specimens.

- Developing plans for subject-matter judicial expertise implementation. 

- Implementing subject-matter judicial expertise.

- Concluding subject-matter judicial expertise. 

- Handing over the judicial expertise conclusions and relevant records, subjects, information, documents, objects, and specimens (if any). 

- Formulating, storing, and preserving subject-matter judicial expertise records.

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