Principles for management, use, and exploitation of inland waterway infrastructure assets in Vietnam

Principles for management, use, and exploitation of inland waterway infrastructure assets in Vietnam

The management, use, and exploitation of inland waterway infrastructure assets must comply with the principles stipulated in the Public Property Management, Use Law 2017, the Land Law 2024, and the following principles:

- Inland waterway infrastructure assets must be fully documented and accounted for in terms of physical existence and value; policies for asset depreciation and maintenance of works must be implemented according to legal regulations.

- The exploitation of inland waterway infrastructure assets via methods such as leasing exploitation rights or transferring exploitation rights temporarily is applicable to the entirety or part of each inland waterway infrastructure asset. In cases where a part of each asset is exploited, it must ensure continuous, safe waterway traffic and not affect the management, use, and exploitation of the remaining asset parts.

- When deciding to hand over, exploit, or handle inland waterway infrastructure assets according to Decree 12/2025/ND-CP, if the asset concerns national defense, the Ministry of National Defense must provide an opinion; for assets related to national security, the Ministry of Public Security's opinion is required. If the asset is not related to national defense or national security, the Ministry of Transport, the provincial-level People's Committee, the inland waterway management authority, and the property management authority are responsible for identifying it in the dossier submitted to the competent agency or person for decision on handing over, exploiting, or handling the asset.

- In cases where the exploitation or handling of inland waterway infrastructure assets as per Decree 12/2025/ND-CP affects other related infrastructure assets, opinions must be obtained from entities managing those related infrastructure assets, and solutions and responsibilities for remediation must be clearly defined.

- The management, use, and exploitation of inland waterway infrastructure assets are subject to oversight, inspection, examination, and audit in accordance with regulations; any violations of the law regarding the management, use, and exploitation of these assets must be addressed promptly and stringently according to legal provisions.

- The management and use of land and waters associated with inland waterway infrastructure assets must comply with land law, inland waterway transportation law, and other relevant legislation. Transfers, sales, gifts, capital contributions, or mortgages of land use rights associated with infrastructure works on inland waterways, and sea area usage rights linked with inland waterway infrastructure works are not permitted. In the event of land recovery linked with inland waterway infrastructure according to land law, recovery of land associated with assets, compensation, support, resettlement, and handling land and assets attached to the land post-recovery must comply with land law; they are not to be conducted according to Decree 12/2025/ND-CP.

The use of land funds to create capital for the development of inland waterway infrastructure assets must adhere to land law.

Decree 12/2025/ND-CP takes effect from January 20, 2025, replacing Decree 45/2018/ND-CP.

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