Government cultural funding
After receiving recommendations and advice from other Vietnamese government ministries, the
Ministry of Finance (
Bộ Tài chính) is responsible for deciding the level of funds allocated to each ministry and the specific conditions under which the funds should operate. It then presents a budget to the
Office of the Government (
Văn phòng Chính phủ) for consideration before the latter forwards it to the
National Assembly of Việt Nam (
Quốc hội Nước Cộng hòa Xã hội Chủ nghĩa Việt Nam) for approval.
In the wake of the split between culture and information in 2007, the
Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) is responsible for supporting national cultural institutions and agencies, including the cultural heritage, while the
Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) is responsible for funding information programmes of national importance. The national budget for culture and information has shown a steady increase in recent years, comprising 800 billion VNĐ (US$51 million) in 2003 and 850 billion VNĐ (US$54 million) in 2004. It must be remembered that Việt Nam is a developing country with very modest funds at its disposal for the development and promotion of arts and heritage, and accordingly at the present time the national budget for culture and information represents just 1.33 per cent of the total state budget.
Some 40 per cent of the national budget for culture and information is disbursed directly by the Ministry of Culture and Information. The way in which this sum is allocated varies from year to year according to specific developmental priorities; in 2004 heritage and basic culture and information received the largest single subsidies.
The remaining 60 per cent is allocated to provincial and municipal Services of Culture and Information around the country. Provincial and municipal expenditure on culture and information varies widely between more affluent provinces such as Bà Rịa-Vũng Tàu, Bình Dương or Quảng Ninh and poorer mountainous provinces such as Hà Giang or Cao Bằng.
In the case of both central and regional funding for culture and information, public funds are directed mainly toward the maintenance and development of the existing cultural institutions and most other projects require outside funding.
Whilst falling under the overall purview of the Ministry of Information and Communications in respect of strategic development and content, the radio and television sectors are funded separately; Together,
Voice of Việt Nam Radio (VOV) and
Việt Nam Television (VTV) received some 700 billion VNĐ (US$44.5 million) in 2003 and 750 billion VNĐ (US$48 million) in 2004.
In the past all cultural organisations affiliated to the Ministry of Culture and Information (predecessor of the current Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism) could depend on state subsidy to cover their entire recurrent expenditure (staffing, administrative and programming costs), developmental expenditure (capital and major project costs) and emergency costs. They were permitted, and in recent years (under the doctrine of
'socialisation') actively encouraged, to develop additional sources of revenue commensurate with their status and function, yet there was little incentive for them actually to do so, since all such additional income had to be paid back to the state, with the sole exception of universities which have for some years been permitted to retain 100 per cent of their tuition fees.
In 2003 the Ministry moved to tackle this problem by introducing a new system of funding which seeks to encourage its grantees to engage more fully with the market economy. Henceforward, state cultural agencies are classified as either ‘Type 1’ organisations, which are capable of generating enough money to cover their recurrent expenditure, or ‘Type 2’ organisations, which can only generate a proportion of the revenue required to cover their recurrent expenditure.
Under the new arrangements ‘Type 1’ organisations no longer receive state funds to cover recurrent expenditure, but are now permitted to keep their earned income and to use this to cover recurrent expenditure. However, they are still entitled to seek subsidy from the state to cover their developmental costs. By the same token, ‘Type 2’ organisations are now expected proactively to seek alternative sources of revenue to cover their recurrent costs, although they are still permitted to apply for a deficit grant from state to make up the difference in the event of a shortfall. Both ‘Type 1’ and ‘Type 2’ organisations are also permitted to utilise earned income to set up funds for employees such as Income Stability Funds, Bonus and Appraisal Funds, Welfare Funds and Activity Development Funds.
Whilst no mechanism is yet in place for ensuring that managers of ‘Type 2’ organisations who consistently fail to generate a certain level of earned income can be called to account for their shortcomings, the new financial arrangements are generally regarded as a significant step forward which will help to encourage state-funded cultural agencies to engage more closely with the market economy.
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