Provincial and local governments

Party Central Committee member Major General Thongloy Silivong was officially appointed on 16 February as the new Party Secretary of Xaysomboun province and provincial Governor. A ceremony to hand over the position between the former Party Secretary of Xaysomboun province and provincial Governor Dr Sombath Yialiher and ...

In a country now saturated with smartphones and an information-hungry population, it was only a matter of time before someone developed an app for civic engagement with the newly elected National League for Democracy-led government. Enter Ko Soe Lin Htoot, a 32-year-old computer designer who hopes ...

The incoming Rakhine State parliament will have only half the funds it needs to develop the state, a local MP has complained. The state parliament adopted the 2016-17 budget on 25 January, days before it rose to give way to the new parliament elected last ...

Dak Lak Province in the Central Highlands has canceled two of the three fireworks shows planned for the upcoming Lunar New Year celebration, urging potential sponsors to give that money to poor people instead.   A source from the province’s culture and tourism department told Tuoi Tre ...

In the first reported breach of the nationwide ceasefire agreement, the Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS) has accused the government of violating the terms of the accord by attacking its forces in the southeast of the state. Colonel Sai La, spokesperson for the Shan State ...

Fighting is spreading over larger areas of northern Shan State as the Tatmadaw and a newly allied ethnic armed group move in reinforcements, according to the Ta’ang National Liberation Army. Villagers forced to flee the conflict are reported to have scattered across five townships. The current round ...

The Ho Chi Minh City People’s Council has recently approved adoption of a multi-dimensional poverty measure in the city’s 2016-20 poverty reduction programme. It measures, besides income, also deprivation in terms of five basic needs — education, health care, employment and social insurance, living conditions, and ...

The responsibilities of provincial assemblies in approving budget plans and granting rights to provincial administrations to use money they have collected in excess of the target plan has raised concerns among some National Assembly members. The concerns were raised by National Assembly members on 16 December when ...

A representative of the finance ministry has allayed concerns that many local governments are struggling financially, after local media reported two agencies in the southern region are drowning in debt.   Speaking to news website VnExpress on 7 December, Vo Thanh Hung, chief of the ministry’s budget ...

Ca Mau, which once benefited from coastal accretion, is now asking for US$6.7 million from the government to deal with relentless erosion.   Vietnam’s southernmost province has a coastline of more than 250 kilometers and the sea has eaten along 80 percent of it, by 50 meters ...