HÀ NỘI — The Ministry of Finance has provided an update on the preparation process for the largest-ever inventory of public assets across the country.

In March, Deputy Prime Minister Lê Minh Khái signed Decision 213, approving a nationwide inventory of public assets at State-owned agencies, organisations and units, as well as infrastructure assets invested and managed by the State.

The process will be conducted at 45 ministries and central agencies in 63 provinces and cities.

The finance ministry was tasked with leading the inventory, helping agencies and localities to conduct their own and summarising the results.

Speaking at a press conference in Hà Nội on Wednesday, Nguyễn Tân Thịnh, head of the ministry’s Department of Public Asset Management, said: “This is an enormous task, being done for the first time at a national scale, at about 100,000 State units and different types of assets.

"The period that the inventory takes place coincides with several major events in the country, including the Party congress of grassroots organisations at the beginning of 2025, and work to streamline the apparatus."

The preparation work for the inventory has been “basically completed”, with the five tasks assigned to the ministry by the Government fulfilled, according to Trần Diệu An, deputy head of the department.

The ministry issued an implementation plan for the inventory -- known as Decision 798 -- on April 5.

The plan designed inventory forms and indexes, and conducted trial inventories at the ministry itself and the Ministry of Transport, as well as in the cities of Hà Nội, HCM City, Đà Nẵng and Hải Phòng and the two provinces of Bắc Kạn and Quảng Ninh.

A software programme dedicated to inventory reporting and data compilation was also built.

All forms, indexes and inventory methods were compiled and issued as official guiding documents.

The ministry has also organised three training sessions, both online and in-person, for 34 ministries and central agencies as well as 57 cities and provinces. Instructions were made in the form of written documents and videos, and published on the ministry’s online portal and industry newspapers. A list of support officers was established and constantly updated.

A timeline to carry out the inventory was provided at the conference, which stated that all preparation work should be completed by December 31. 

The closing date for submission of inventory data is 12am on January 1, 2025. Public assets formed after this time will not be subject to the inventory.

All organisations are expected to complete their inventories by March 31 and report to the finance ministry by June 15.

By July 31, the ministry will have compiled all data to be reported to the Government. — VNS