At the request of the National Assembly’s Committee of Economic Affairs (CEA), this policy discussion paper will provide a general assessment of decentralization of economic management in Vietnam. More specifically, the topics of CEA’s interests are: the theoretical foundation and principles of decentralization, the situation of decentralization in recent years and its consequences, and policy recommendations on reforming the current framework of decentralization policy. In line with the CEA’s request, this policy discussion paper will not go deeply into specific dimensions of decentralization - which are the subject of other papers in this Forum - but instead focus on the common and cross-cutting issues shared by different dimensions of decentralization in Vietnam. In addition, at the request of the CEA, this policy discussion paper focuses on the relationship between the two most important levels of government, namely the central and the provincial government. However, it should be emphasized that decentralization is a multi-dimensional concept, and as will be discussed in this policy discussion paper, the narrow focus on certain dimensions will run the risk of over-simplification, or even superficiality in decentralization design.