Vietnamese, Chinese State audit agencies beef up collaboration

Auditor General Tran Sy Thanh and his Chinese counterpart Hou Kai co-chaired the online talks between the State Audit of Vietnam (SAV) and the National Audit Office (NAO) of China on August 30 (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) – State auditors of Vietnam and China have pledged to work closely together to successfully organise and operate the 15th Asian Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (ASOSAI) Assembly and the 56th meeting of the ASOSAI Governing Board.

Auditor General Tran Sy Thanh and his Chinese counterpart Hou Kai on August 30 co-chaired online talks between the State Audit of Vietnam (SAV) and the National Audit Office (NAO) of China, which aimed to strengthen the collaboration between the two agencies.

Thanh thanked the NAO, which plays the role of the General Secretary of the Asian Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (ASOSAI) in the 2018-2021 tenure, for its support to and close coordination with Vietnam, helping the country successfully perform the role of ASOSAI President in the tenure.

He briefed his Chinese counterpart on the recent socio-economic situation in Vietnam as well as major events of the country, including the 13th National Party Congress, the first meeting of the National Assembly and anti-corruption efforts.

Thanh said that SAV, as a tool in supervising and governing the public finance of the country, has conducted auditing activities and provided auditing reports and relevant documents to NA agencies to assist them in supervising and working out national fiscal policies.

Auditor General Tran Sy Thanh speaks at the talks (Photo: VNA)

In order to complete targets and plans in the future, the NA Standing Committee has adopted the "Strategy for the State Audit of Vietnam Development to 2030" which defines three major pillars for the sector’s growth, namely legal corridor, human resources, and technology, Thanh said.

For his part, Chinese Auditor General Hou Kai said that China and Vietnam enjoy many similarities in development, underlining that the two bodies are important traditional partners of each other.

Both sides have exerted efforts to promote cooperation in the bilateral framework, while supporting each other in multilateral forums, he noted.

Regarding achievements of the audit sector of China, Hou said that since 2012 when China decided to strengthen the leadership of NAO over audit agencies in localities, the tasks of the office have become increasingly heavy and important. In 2021, it has been focusing on the major missions of monitoring economic activities, auditing financial activities and budget collection and spending, and expanding research on audit subjects, he told the event.

The two sides agreed to continue promoting the bilateral cooperation by increasing the exchange of high-level delegations to share experience in public auditing and issues of mutual concern in suitable forms amid the complicated development of the COVID-19 pandemic.

They will also consider cooperation topics in line with the implementation of sustainable development goals, especially in environmental protection and pandemic control. The two sides agreed to jointly hold a webinar on big data in public auditing this October.

Both sides concurred to continue supporting each other at multilateral forums of the ASOSAI and International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI), while working closely together to organise the 15th ASOSAI Assembly as well as the 56th ASOSAI Governing Board Meeting. SAV will support NAO to extend its office term as the ASOSAI General Secretary in the 2021-2024 tenure.

The two agencies also agreed to review their cooperation agreement with a view to making suitable adjustments and signing it again to suit the real development situation in the two countries, thus increasing their collaboration.

A memorandum of understanding on exchange and cooperation between the two agencies was signed in March 2004. It was resigned in October 2013 and extended in July 2019./.