The government has issued Resolution No. 173 on the scope and targets for saving regular expenditures in the 2025 budget.
The government has exempted salary-related expenses from the cost-saving measures.
Notably, the resolution outlines four areas that are excluded from the cost-saving measures.
Firstly
, this includes salary and salary-like expenses, as well as expenses related to human resources.
This covers: the 10% savings allocated for salary reform in the 2025 budget as mandated by the competent authority.
Salary and salary-like expenses encompass salaries, salary-like payments, and human resources expenses as per Government Decree No. 73/2024, which sets out the base salary and bonus schemes for officials, public employees, civil servants, and armed forces.
Additionally, it includes funding for social welfare policies decided by competent authorities, and other human resources expenses such as retrenchment allowances, scholarships and policies for students, support for needy intellectuals, food and bonuses as per regulations, expert fees, and other human resources expenses; industry-specific allowances, including those in cash and in kind; funding for tuition fee waivers and reductions as per regulations; and literary and artistic awards funds.
Secondly
, the excluded areas comprise expenses related to international commitments: expenses from foreign sources of funding; counterpart funding for ODA projects; membership fees; and funding for international arbitration agreements, rulings, and settlements.
Thirdly
, the resolution exempts funding for tasks completed before the issuance of this resolution, as well as expenses for procurement, repairs, and tenders that have been issued before the resolution and are ongoing in 2025.
Fourthly
, certain political, specialized, and important tasks are excluded from budget cuts.
Specifically, this includes funding for National Assembly sessions, activities of the National Assembly Standing Committee and delegations of National Assembly deputies; propaganda and press activities serving the National Assembly; funding for law and ordinance building support; support for religious organizations and dignitaries in Vietnam; funding for the production of commendation objects; funding for People’s Council sessions and activities at all levels; funding for party congresses at all levels.
It also covers the activities of Vietnamese representative offices and other Vietnamese agencies abroad; other diplomatic activities of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; support and protection of Vietnamese citizens and legal entities abroad; and funding for foreign relations activities of Party, State, National Assembly, and Government leaders.
Additionally, it includes funding for foreign students in Vietnam and Vietnamese students studying abroad under agreements; funding for projects on training and fostering abroad that have been approved by the Prime Minister; funding for training and fostering officials and public employees;
Funding for national tasks in science, technology, innovation, and digital transformation to implement Resolution No. 57 of the Politburo (on breakthrough development in science, technology, innovation, and digital transformation) and Resolution No. 193/2025 of the National Assembly (on piloting some special mechanisms and policies for breakthrough development in science, technology, innovation, and digital transformation).
It also includes funding for preventive medicine activities; funding for activities such as line guidance, professional support, technology transfer, and secondment of specialists from higher-level hospitals to support lower-level hospitals to improve the quality of examination and treatment; funding for examination, treatment, and care for mental, leprosy, and tuberculosis patients at medical facilities.
Furthermore, it covers funding for court activities; funding for investigation, prosecution, and judicial activities of the people’s procuracy; funding for appraisal to serve the activities of judicial, inspection, and audit agencies; funding for mediation and dialogue under the Law on Mediation and Dialogue at the Court; funding for compensation; and funding for death penalty execution support.
In the resolution, the Government assigns the Minister of Finance, on behalf of the Prime Minister, to report to the National Assembly at the 9th session of the XVth National Assembly on the following content: “Saving an additional 10% of regular expenditures in the last 7 months of 2025 to supplement investment for the Lao Cai – Hanoi – Hai Phong railway line; assigning the Government to organize the implementation and report to the National Assembly at the nearest session.”
