Notable new policies taking effect in April 2025

Sewing for export. (Photo: Tran Viet/VNA)

In April 2025, many new policies will take effect, notably policies related to labor management, wages, remuneration, and bonuses in state-owned enterprises; amending and supplementing regulations on policies to support tuition fees and living expenses for pedagogical students.

New regulations on labor management, wages, remuneration and bonuses in state-owned enterprises

The Government issued Decree No. 44/2025/ND-CP dated February 28, 2025 regulating the management of labor, wages, remuneration, and bonuses in state-owned enterprises. The Decree clearly stipulates the principles of labor, wage, remuneration, and bonus management.

Specifically, labor, wages, remuneration and bonuses in enterprises are determined in connection with tasks, labor productivity and production and business efficiency, in accordance with the industry and nature of the enterprise's operations, aiming to ensure the wage level in the market; implementing an appropriate wage mechanism for enterprises to attract and encourage high-tech human resources in high-tech fields prioritized for development by the State.

The State shall manage labor, wages, and bonuses for enterprises in which the State holds 100% of the charter capital by assigning tasks and responsibilities to the owner's representative agency and the owner's direct representative at the enterprise; for enterprises in which the State holds more than 50% of the charter capital or total voting shares, the owner's representative agency shall assign tasks and responsibilities to the representative of the State capital to participate, vote, and make decisions at meetings of the Board of Members, Board of Directors, or General Meeting of Shareholders.

Separate the salaries and remuneration of Board members and Supervisors from the salaries of the Executive Board.

The Decree stipulates that the salary fund of employees and the Executive Board is determined according to the following methods: Determining the salary fund through the average salary level; determining the salary fund through the stable salary unit price.

This method is only applicable to enterprises that have been in operation for at least the expected period of applying the stable wage unit price.

Decree No. 44/2025/ND-CP of the Government takes effect from April 15, 2025.

Amending and supplementing regulations on policies to support tuition fees and living expenses for pedagogical students

The Government issued Decree No. 60/2025/ND-CP (Decree 60) dated March 3, 2025 amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decree No. 116/2020/ND-CP dated September 25, 2020 (Decree 116) regulating policies to support tuition fees and living expenses for pedagogical students.

Students of Hanoi Capital University. (Source: VNA)

Decree No. 60 was issued to overcome limitations and difficulties in the implementation of Decree No. 116, while continuing to inherit the results achieved in implementing support policies, attracting excellent and dedicated students to study and work, and contributing to the education sector.

Decree 60/2025/ND-CP amends and supplements Article 9 of Decree 116/2020/ND-CP on recovery of support funds.

Specifically, every year, based on the training and learning results of pedagogical students, teacher training institutions shall notify the list of pedagogical students who are entitled to the policy and are in the training period but have transferred to another training major, voluntarily dropped out of school, failed to complete the training program, or have been disciplined and forced to drop out of school to the People's Committee of the province where the student is a permanent resident or the agency that assigns the task or places the order to notify the recovery of the funds that have been supported for pedagogical students.

For pedagogical students who are supported with funds in the form of budget allocation and are subject to reimbursement, before December 30 of each year, based on the Certificate of working time in the education sector of the pedagogical student, the People's Committee of the province where the student is a permanent resident shall review, monitor, guide, and issue a notice to recover the support funds so that the pedagogical student can fully pay back the amount to be reimbursed according to regulations.

For pedagogical students who are supported financially in the form of assignment or order and are required to reimburse the tuition and living expenses support fund, the agency assigning the assignment or order shall monitor, guide, and issue a notice to recover the support fund so that the pedagogical students can fully pay back the amount to be reimbursed according to regulations.

Within 30 days from the date of receipt of the notice from the competent authority, students who are eligible for reimbursement must contact the agency that issued the notice of recovery of the reimbursement to complete the procedures for reimbursement of the support funds.

The maximum period for fulfilling the obligation to reimburse the support fund is 4 years from the date the student teacher receives the notice of reimbursement.

Within the time limit for performing the obligation to reimburse the cost, the student must pay the reimbursement to the teacher training institution or the agency that places the order or assigns the task (for students who are subject to the order or assignment) according to regulations.

In case the student is late in performing the refund obligation beyond the prescribed time limit, he/she shall be subject to the maximum interest rate applicable to demand deposits as prescribed by the State Bank of Vietnam for the late refund amount.

In case the State Bank does not prescribe the maximum interest rate applicable to demand deposits, the interest rate applicable to demand deposits of the Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade at the time of performing the reimbursement obligation must be paid.

Clause 7, Article 1 of Decree 60/2025/ND-CP stipulates cases where pedagogical students are exempted from or have their tuition fee reimbursement amount removed, reduced or exempted: Pedagogical students will have their tuition fee reimbursement amount removed if they are subject to a labor capacity reduction of 61% or more or have passed away; pedagogical students are exempted from or have their tuition fee reimbursement amount reduced if they are subject to the tuition fee exemption or reduction policy according to Government regulations; the People's Committee of the province where the student is a permanent resident decides to exempt, reduce or remove the tuition fee reimbursement amount for pedagogical students who are subject to the policy.

The Decree takes effect from April 20, 2025 and applies starting from the 2025-2026 school year.

Regulations on electronic signatures and trusted services

The Government issued Decree No. 23/2025/ND-CP regulating electronic signatures and trusted services. This Decree regulates electronic signatures and trusted services, except for digital signatures used exclusively for public services and digital signature authentication services used exclusively for public services.

Illustration photo. (Source: AP)

This Decree applies to agencies, organizations and individuals directly participating in or related to electronic signatures and trusted services.

According to Decree 23/2025/ND-CP, from April 10, digital signature certificates are classified as follows: Original digital signature certificate of a national electronic certification service provider is a digital signature certificate self-issued by the national electronic certification service provider corresponding to each type of trusted service.

A digital signature certificate of a trusted service provider is a digital signature certificate issued by a national electronic certification service provider to a trusted service provider corresponding to each type of trusted service. A public digital signature certificate is a digital signature certificate issued by a public digital signature certification service provider to a subscriber.

A specialized digital signature certificate is an electronic signature certificate issued by an agency or organization that creates specialized digital signatures. Also according to the decree, a public digital signature is a digital signature used in public activities, guaranteed by a public digital signature certificate and meeting all the requirements specified in Clause 3, Article 22 of the Law on Electronic Transactions.

The Decree clearly states that all agencies, organizations, and authorized persons of agencies and organizations as prescribed by law that are established and operate legally have the right to be granted and issue digital signature certificates.

Digital signature certificates issued to authorized persons of agencies and organizations must clearly state the title and name of the agency or organization of that person. Use of digital signatures and digital signature certificates of agencies, organizations and authorized persons of agencies and organizations.

According to the Decree, digital signatures of agencies, organizations and authorized persons of agencies and organizations that are granted and issued digital signature certificates according to the above provisions may only be used to perform transactions and activities within the authority of the agency, organization and position granted and issued digital signature certificates.

Signing on behalf of or on behalf of an authorized person as prescribed by law is performed by a person assigned or authorized to use his/her digital signature, understood based on the title of the signer recorded on the digital signature certificate.

The Decree takes effect from April 10, 2025./.

According to VNA

Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/nhung-chinh-sach-moi-noi-bat-co-hieu-luc-trong-thang-4-nam-2025-243888.htm