Substance of the Prime Minister's agenda: reform drive to unlock growth

One week after being elected Prime Minister by the 16th National Assembly, Prime Minister Le Minh Hung issued directives across key policy areas, emphasizing a pragmatic approach to sustaining growth while addressing bottlenecks in investment, institutions and public services.

Growth priorities and investment mobilisation

The Prime Minister said Vietnam must continue to rely on traditional growth drivers such as exports, construction and services before fully benefiting from science and technology. He also noted that the global energy crunch will affect capital flows, inputs and investment, making it necessary to pursue a two-digit growth target for the term while ensuring stability across major economic balances, including supply and demand for goods, fiscal and monetary conditions, and international payments.

On investment, the Prime Minister said total social investment is expected to reach 40% of GDP by 2030, equivalent to about 38.5 quadrillion dong. Of this total, public investment is expected to account for 20% (more than 8 quadrillion dong), while the remaining 80% should be mobilised from domestic enterprises, with foreign direct investment (FDI) prioritised.

He argued that achieving this requires a transparent legal framework to mobilise resources and improve effectiveness. The plan, he said, is to diversify funding sources beyond public investment into bank credit and bonds, as well as indirect channels. The main new channels would be an International Financial Center and public-private partnerships (PPP) as strategic channels rather than only supporting mechanisms.

The Prime Minister highlighted the need to ensure these funding channels are effective, avoid dispersal and wasteful spending, and apply risk controls to improve the feasibility of each channel. He said the resources are embedded in “thousands of projects and tasks” and that removing remaining obstacles could unlock a major growth engine.

Handling blocked projects and compliance violations

The Politburo agreed with a Government proposal to consider addressing long-standing blocked projects and to agree in principle on a special mechanism to handle violations outside the scope of the existing framework in Decision 77/2024 of the Politburo and Resolution 170/2024 of the National Assembly.

The Prime Minister said unlocking these resources would release a large pool of capital and help stimulate the labour market by reactivating projects and tasks.

Administrative reform targets and delegation

Emphasising institutional reform, Prime Minister Le Minh Hung focused on administrative reforms as concrete steps to ensure institutional operation and development. He called for a 30% reduction in the number of sectors and business conditions, citing 198 conditional business sectors and 4,603 business conditions, alongside the elimination of unnecessary conditions.

The target is to cut processing time and compliance costs by half. At the ministry level, he said only up to 30% of procedures should remain, with the remainder devolved to local authorities and frontline agencies. He also directed ministers to take direct action rather than outsourcing implementation.

Ministries are required to act no later than the end of Q2. Before 20 April, they must submit plans to cut procedures and business conditions and to delegate responsibilities, with only matters requiring central government action retained at the national level.

The Prime Minister stressed that the objective is to reduce the actual time and cost for businesses, noting that while many commitments exist to support businesses, informal costs and procedural delays continue to hinder them.

Directives for hospital operations and governance of licensing

In the health sector, the Prime Minister directed that two major hospitals—Bach Mai and Viet Duc—be brought into operation in Q2 to serve people. He said violations and outdated regulations have been identified and that resolving them is the responsibility of competent authorities, while district-level hospitals should be relieved to better meet healthcare needs.

He also said the governance framework for fire safety and environmental licensing is technical and must be completed promptly, rather than used as a reason to delay hospital operations.

Beyond resolving the two hospital projects quickly, the Prime Minister said the approach should set a precedent for reviewing and pruning unnecessary administrative procedures and business conditions that hinder development. He framed the directive as ensuring that public needs are not delayed, with outdated rules and weak governance viewed as barriers to new operations.