Corruption in Vietnam is pervasive and widespread, due to weak legal infrastructure, financial unpredictability, and conflicting and negative bureaucratic decision-making. Surveys from 2015 revealed that while petty corruption decreased slightly throughout the country, high-level corruption significantly increased as a means of abuse of political power in

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

. Corruption is a very significant problem in Vietnam, impacting all aspects of administration,

education Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...

and

law enforcement Law enforcement is the activity of some members of the government or other social institutions who act in an organized manner to enforce the law by investigating, deterring, rehabilitating, or punishing people who violate the rules and norms gove ...

. Vietnam is an

one-party state A one-party state, single-party state, one-party system or single-party system is a governance structure in which only a single political party controls the ruling system. In a one-party state, all opposition parties are either outlawed or en ...

under the

Communist Party of Vietnam The Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) is the founding and sole legal party of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Founded in 1930 by Hồ Chí Minh, the CPV became the ruling party of North Vietnam in 1954 and then all of Vietnam after the col ...

(CPV). In 2015, the party stated that corruption had moved up the political agenda, and the legal framework for tackling corruption had become "better developed". A major anti-corruption campaign began the next year, and by 2024, more than 2,700 party organisations and 168,000 party members were punished, including 33 current or former Central Committee members and 50 high-ranking military officers. As of January 2018 Vietnam scored one of the highest rates of bribery practices – the rate citizens have paid a bribe to key public institutions over the past 12 months, at 65%, is second only to corruption in India with 69%. In effect, as of 2012, corruption has been considered an obstacle for doing business in Vietnam, and the use of facilitation payments have been widespread when dealing with frontline civil servants at all levels of society.

Ranking

Transparency International Transparency International e.V. (TI) is a German registered association founded in 1993 by former employees of the World Bank. Based in Berlin, its nonprofit and non-governmental purpose is to take action to combat global corruption with civil s ...

's 2024

Corruption Perceptions Index The Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) is an index that scores and ranks countries by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, as assessed by experts and business executives. The CPI generally defines corruption as an "abuse of entr ...

, which scored 180 countries on a scale from 0 ("highly corrupt") to 100 ("very clean"), gave Vietnam a score of 40. When ranked by score, Vietnam ranked 88th among the 180 countries in the Index, where the country ranked first is perceived to have the most honest public sector. For comparison with regional scores, the best score among the countries of the Asia Pacific region was 84, the average score was 44 and the worst score was 16. For comparison with worldwide scores, the best score was 90 (ranked 1), the average score was 43, and the worst score was 8 (ranked 180).

Pervasiveness

Surveys from 2015 revealed that while petty corruption decreased slightly throughout the country, high-level corruption or systemic and

political corruption Political corruption is the use of powers by government officials or their network contacts for illegitimate private gain. Forms of corruption vary but can include bribery, lobbying, extortion, cronyism, nepotism, parochialism, patronage, influen ...

significantly increased as a means of abuse of political power in

. As of January 2018 Vietnam scored one of the highest rates of bribery practices – the rate citizens have paid a bribe to key public institutions over the past 12 months, at 65%, is second only to Corruption in India with 69%.

Effect

Vietnam is a

developing country A developing country is a sovereign state with a less-developed industrial base and a lower Human Development Index (HDI) relative to developed countries. However, this definition is not universally agreed upon. There is also no clear agreeme ...

of about 96 million people as of 2018. As of 2012, corruption was considered an obstacle for doing business in Vietnam, and the use of facilitation payments have been widespread when dealing with frontline civil servants at all levels of society. Due to the international view of corruption in Vietnam, in 2020,

foreign direct investment A foreign direct investment (FDI) is an ownership stake in a company, made by a foreign investor, company, or government from another country. More specifically, it describes a controlling ownership an asset in one country by an entity based i ...

(FDI) in Vietnam stood at only US$28.5 billion, far below its

ASEAN The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, commonly abbreviated as ASEAN, is a regional grouping of 10 states in Southeast Asia "that aims to promote economic and security cooperation among its ten members." Together, its member states r ...

neighbours.

Government anti-corruption efforts

In 2016, the ongoing "blazing furnace" (''đốt lò'') anti-corruption campaign was started by Nguyễn Phú Trọng, general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam. In 2021, the Vietnamese government stated that it had taken stronger efforts to combat corruption. In the first eight years of the campaign, more than 2,700 party organisations and 168,000 party members were punished. Among them were 33 current or former Central Committee members, and 50 high-ranking military officers.

Officials implicated by the anti-corruption campaigns

Đinh La Thăng Đinh La Thăng (; 10 September 1960) is a Vietnamese former politician who served as Minister of Transport, Communist Party Secretary of Ho Chi Minh City, and member of the Politburo. On 22 January 2018 he became the first top Party official in ...

: former Minister of Transport, former Communist Party Secretary of

Ho Chi Minh City Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) ('','' TP.HCM; ), commonly known as Saigon (; ), is the most populous city in Vietnam with a population of around 14 million in 2025. The city's geography is defined by rivers and canals, of which the largest is Saigo ...

, and former member of the

Politburo of the Communist Party of Vietnam The Political Bureau (Politburo) of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee is the highest body of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) in between gatherings of the National Congress and of the plenary sessions Central Committee. Accord ...

. * Nguyễn Đức Chung: former Major General of the

Vietnam People's Public Security The People's Public Security of Vietnam (), alternatively the People's Public Security Forces (PPS; - CAND), also recognized as the Vietnamese police, Vietnamese Police or by its Vietnamese short name (), is the national police and the main ...

and Vietnamese politician. He is a former Chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee. * Nguyễn Thanh Long: Minister of Health from July 2020 until his removal from the

in June 2022 for involvement in the Việt Á scandal. * Trịnh Xuân Thanh: Former Vietnamese politician and businessman. He is the former head of the state-owned Petrovietnam Construction Joint Stock Corporation (a subsidiary of Petrovietnam) and the former Deputy-Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee of Hậu Giang. *

Nguyễn Xuân Phúc Nguyễn Xuân Phúc (; born 20 July 1954) is a Vietnamese former politician who served as the 11th president of Vietnam from 2021 until his resignation in 2023 amidst a series of corruption scandals. He also was the seventh prime minister from ...

: Former

President of Vietnam The president of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam () is the head of state of Vietnam, elected by the National Assembly of Vietnam from its delegates. Since Vietnam is a one-party state, candidates for the post are nominated by the Central Commit ...

implicated in the Việt Á scandal, resigned on January 23, 2023 * Dương Bá Thanh Dân: Director of the Department of Medical Supplies at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, in the Southeastern Province of Ninh Thuan, and his employee Nguyễn Đăng Đức. * Đào Hữu Long: Director of Thua Thien Hue Provincial Registration Center. *

Tô Anh Dũng Tô or To is a Vietnamese surname. It was formerly written in chữ Hán as . It derived from the Chinese surname Su, but is written as in modern simplified characters. List of persons with the surname * Tô Hiến Thành, an official in the roy ...

: Former Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, (and seven other former officials at the foreign ministry) due to allegedly receiving bribes up to $908,000 to add companies to a list of providers of repatriation flights during COVID 19 epidemic.

Notes

References

External links

Vietnam Corruption Profile
from the Business Anti-Corruption Portal, 2015 * {{Vietnam topics Politics of Vietnam Crime in Vietnam by type Society of Vietnam

Law of Vietnam Economy of Vietnam Government of Vietnam