The Art of Streamlining: Navigating Asset Management in the Public Sector

On June 4th, in Ho Chi Minh City, Deputy Minister of Finance Bui Van Khang led a delegation comprising representatives from various central ministries and sectors on a field trip to directly work with the administration of Ho Chi Minh City, Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province, and Binh Duong Province.

Deputy Minister Bui Van Khang stated that, in accordance with the conclusions of the Steering Committee for Corruption and Waste Prevention of the Central Government and the Prime Minister’s Official Dispatch 80/CD-TTg, the Ministry of Finance issued Decision 1805/QD-BTC on May 20, 2025, establishing a working group to coordinate, review, and handle structures, land, and other assets that are public property. The goal is to ensure efficient use and exploitation, avoiding waste in the process of streamlining the apparatus and administrative units.

The Ministry of Finance also reviewed projects, structures, and headquarters that are under construction or have been approved for investment, which are affected by the streamlining of central and local administrative units.

To provide a legal basis for asset handling, the Ministry of Finance developed and submitted to the Government for issuance of Decree 114/2024/ND-CP dated September 15, 2024, and Decree 50/2025/ND-CP dated February 28, 2025, amending and supplementing regulations on asset handling in cases of merger, consolidation, split, dissolution, or termination of operations.

Since the end of February 2025, the Ministry of Finance has issued numerous documents providing detailed guidance on asset handling, programs, tasks, projects, and public investment plans during the administrative unit streamlining process.

Most recently, the Prime Minister’s Official Dispatch 80/CD-TTg dated June 2, 2025, directed the establishment of working groups to directly supervise and guide localities with large volumes of public assets, complex characteristics, and slow handling progress.

At the meeting, the delegation received reports from the administrations of Ho Chi Minh City, Ba Ria-Vung Tau, and Binh Duong on the number of surplus headquarters, the need for new headquarters arrangements, and the number of ongoing public asset projects affected by local administrative unit streamlining.

The delegation provided direct guidance to address difficulties and obstacles faced by ministries, sectors, and localities in handling public assets, projects, structures, and headquarters that are under construction or have had their investment approved. They also collected feedback on several draft legal documents related to standards and norms for the use of public assets, two draft decrees on decentralization and delineation of authority in the field of public asset and land finance management, and documents related to investment projects. The localities were asked to consider whether the current level of decentralization and devolution of authority is reasonable.

According to Deputy Minister Bui Van Khang, the arrangement and handling of public assets is a task of enormous scale and complexity. Local governments and leaders of ministries and sectors need to direct relevant agencies to thoroughly review and compile a list of headquarters and public assets under their management, as well as projects for headquarters construction that are underway or included in the medium-term public investment plan or approved for investment but not yet implemented. Based on this, they should develop plans for asset arrangement and handling and propose implementation for projects and structures affected by administrative unit rearrangement. In doing so, it is important to emphasize that the development of asset arrangement plans should be closely linked to the formulation of administrative unit rearrangement schemes, following the spirit of “running and lining up at the same time.”

“For surplus land and buildings, local governments and ministries should develop handling plans that ensure the ‘six clears’ as directed by the Prime Minister: clear people, clear tasks, clear time, clear responsibilities, clear products, and clear authority,” Deputy Minister Bui Van Khang emphasized. “At the same time, regularly update the list of surplus land and buildings to include any new additions.”