Vietnam plans to cut 10 percent of civil service jobs in next 4 years

Vietnam has set a target of scrapping at least 400,000 civil service jobs by 2021 in a bid to cut public spending under a new resolution issued by the Communist Party.

To meet this goal, local authorities have been asked to look at the efficiency of state agencies to ensure that none of their roles are overlapping.

Small communes across the country that employ too many civil servants, based on size and population, will also be merged.

“Merging hundreds of communes could help save trillions of dong,” said Nguyen Duc Ha, a member of the team tasked with drafting the resolution.

Vietnam employs around 700,000 civil servants it doesn't need at a cost of about VND17 trillion ($760 million) per year, said Bui Sy Loi, vice chairman of the parliamentary Committee on Social Affairs.

About 10,000 civil servants lost their jobs in the first half of 2016 as part of government efforts to balance the budget.

Economist Tran Xuan Cau estimated that by cutting the number of people on the state payroll by a third, the government could save up to VND100 trillion ($4.4 billion).