River basin management is receiving considerable attention at present. Part of the debate, now occurring worldwide, concerns the nature of the organisations that are required to manage river basins successfully, and whether special-purpose river basin organisations (RBOs) are always necessary and in what circumstance they are likely to (i) add to the management of the water resources and (ii) be successful. The development of river basin management requires a number of important elements to be developed to a point where the river basin can be managed successfully. These include the relevant laws, the public and non-government institutions, the technical capabilities of the people, the understanding and motivation of people, and the technical capacity and systems, including information. A river basin organisation (or RBO) is taken to mean a special-purpose organisation charged with some part of the management of the water resources of a particular river basin. Generally speaking, such organisations are responsible for various functions related to the supply, distribution, protection and allocation of water, and their boundaries follow the watershed of the river in question. However, the same functions can be carried out by various organisations, which are not configured on the geographical boundaries of a river basin. This paper outlines recent work on river basin organisation in Vietnam, and makes some comparisons with the situation in Australia.