Human resources, employment and financial policies effective from February 2023

Regulations on schools of State agencies, socio-political organizations, and people's armed forces

On December 12, 2022, Decree No. 103/2022/ND-CP of the Government regulating schools of State agencies, political organizations, socio-political organizations, and the People's Armed Forces. The Decree takes effect from February 1, 2023.

This Decree provides for the legal status, tasks and powers, organizational structure, training and fostering activities, teachers, learners, and management of schools of State agencies, political organizations, socio-political organizations, and people's armed forces (training and fostering schools).

The Decree stipulates that training and fostering schools are educational institutions of the national education system organized and operated according to Party regulations and legal provisions, specifically:

State agency schools are public service units directly under ministries, ministerial-level agencies, government agencies, the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuracy, and the State Audit.

Schools of political organizations are agencies and public service units directly under the Party Central Committee; provincial and municipal Party Committees directly under the Central Committee; district, county, town and city Party Committees directly under provinces and centrally run cities.

Leaders and Commanders of the Provincial Military Command visited innovative models of technical improvements in combat readiness training of the Nghe An Provincial Military Command. Photo: Trong Kien

The school of a socio-political organization is a public service unit directly under the central agency of the socio-political organization.

Schools of the People's Armed Forces are units under the management of the Ministry of National Defense and the Ministry of Public Security, within the organization and staffing of the Vietnam People's Army and the Vietnam People's Public Security.

The Decree clearly states that the organizational structure of training and fostering schools under state agencies and socio-political organizations must be consistent with the organizational structure of public service units, according to the provisions of relevant laws, including: Principal, director (principal); vice principal, deputy director (vice principal); School council, academy council (school council) implemented according to the provisions of the Decree and relevant laws; Science and training council; Faculties, functional departments; units serving training, fostering and scientific research; other units and organizations (if any) according to the development needs of the training and fostering school.

Cases of signing labor contracts in administrative agencies and public service units

Decree No. 111/2022/ND-CP dated December 30, 2022 on contracts for certain types of work in administrative agencies and public service units takes effect from February 22, 2023.

The Decree clearly states that contract performance work includes support and service work in administrative agencies and public service units that manage and apply regimes and policies according to the provisions of labor law, civil law and other relevant legal provisions, including driving, security; reception, service; janitor; vehicle keeping; maintenance, repair, operation of headquarters, equipment, machinery serving the activities of agencies, organizations, units; other support and service work in the list of support and service positions in administrative agencies and public service units that are not identified as civil servants or public employees according to the provisions of law.

Support and service jobs in administrative agencies to manage and apply regimes and policies like civil servants, including security guards at agencies and units of the Party Central Office, the President's Office, the National Assembly Office, the Government Office; Treasury or Treasury of valuable documents and seals of the State Bank, the State Treasury, the Tax Seal Warehouse, the Customs Seal Warehouse; drivers serving the Minister or positions or titles equivalent to Minister or higher; drivers of specialized vehicles transporting money of the State Bank, the State Treasury; people doing other support and service jobs at important and confidential agencies at the Central level according to the decision of the head of the competent management agency.

Professional and technical jobs in the list of specialized job title positions and specialized job title positions used in common in public service units.

The list of common professional civil servant job positions is specified in Circular No. 12/2022/TT-BNV of the Ministry of Home Affairs guiding the positions of leadership and management civil servants; common professional skills; support and service in administrative agencies and organizations and common professional professional title job positions; support and service in public service units.

Harvest season in Chau Tien. Photo courtesy: Nguyen Book

Support rice growers with no less than 50% of the cost

The Ministry of Finance issued Circular No. 02/2023/TT-BTC amending and supplementing a number of articles of Circular No. 18/2016/TT-BTC guiding the implementation of Decree No. 35/2015/ND-CP of the Government on management and use of rice-growing land.

Depending on specific conditions, localities will decide to implement the following support measures for rice growers: Use no less than 50% of the funding to support rice growers to apply new varieties, technical advances, and new technologies in rice production; support production linkage and product consumption.

The remaining budget is to carry out tasks including analyzing the chemical and physical quality of specialized rice growing areas with high productivity and quality every 10 years for effective use and appropriate improvement measures: Based on technical and economic norms, units prepare cost estimates and submit them to competent authorities for decision;

Improving the quality of land specialized for wet rice cultivation or remaining wet rice cultivation land: Based on the planning and land use plan for rice cultivation in each period approved by competent authorities of the locality, the quality of land specialized for wet rice cultivation in the area and the actual conditions of the locality, the provincial People's Committee directs the district People's Committee to develop a plan to improve the quality of land specialized for wet rice cultivation or remaining wet rice cultivation land for the whole period and each year, send it to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development for synthesis and report to the provincial People's Committee for approval.

Based on the approved plan to improve the quality of rice-growing land and technical and economic norms, the units shall prepare a budget for improving the quality of rice-growing land (increasing the thickness of the cultivation layer; raising low-lying rice-growing land; increasing the flatness of the field surface; removing acidity and salinity from acid-contaminated and saline soils and other soil improvement measures) and submit it to the competent authority for decision as a basis for implementation;

Investing in construction and maintenance of agricultural and rural infrastructure works in the commune, with priority given to investment in transportation and irrigation systems on rice-growing land;

Reclamation and restoration of unused land into specialized rice-growing land or remaining rice-growing land: Expenditure level according to regulations in Clause 4, Article 7 of Decree No. 35/2015/ND-CP of the Government on management and use of rice-growing land.

This Circular takes effect from February 20, 2023.

50% reduction in fees when registering for permanent residence through the online public service portal

Circular No. 75/2022/TT-BTC of the Ministry of Finance regulating the collection rates, collection, payment and management of residence registration fees takes effect from February 5, 2023. Accordingly, citizens will receive a 50% reduction in fees when registering for permanent residence throughOnline public service portal.

The Circular clearly states that when Vietnamese citizens carry out residence registration procedures (permanent residence registration, temporary residence registration, temporary residence extension, household separation) with the residence registration agency according to the provisions of the law on residence, they must pay fees according to the provisions of this Circular.

New regulations on buying, transferring and carrying foreign currency abroad

Circular 20/2022/TT-NHNN of the State Bank of Vietnam guiding one-way money transfer activities from Vietnam to foreign countries and payment and money transfer for other current transactions of residents who are organizations and individuals takes effect from February 15, 2023.

The Circular stipulates that cases of purchasing, transferring, and carrying foreign currency abroad for the purpose of funding and aid of organizations include purchasing, transferring, and carrying foreign currency abroad for funding and aid according to commitments and agreements between the State, the Government, local authorities at all levels and foreign countries. Funding and aid sources are funds from the budget or the funding and aid organizations themselves;

Purchase and transfer foreign currency abroad to finance and provide aid to overcome the consequences of natural disasters, epidemics and wars. The funding and aid sources are voluntary contributions from domestic organizations and individuals and/or the funding and aid organizations themselves;

Purchase and transfer foreign currency abroad to finance programs, funds and projects established by domestic and/or foreign organizations for the purpose of supporting and encouraging development in the fields of culture, education (scholarship funding), and health. The funding source is the funding source of the sponsoring organization itself.

In addition, the Circular also clarifies cases of purchasing and transferring money one-way abroad by organizations to serve other purposes.