HANOI, July 28 (Xinhua) — Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has just approved a proposal on conditional release of prisoners ahead of time, following which some 20,000 prisoners will enjoy early release by 2018.

According to the proposal, the Ministry of Public Security is assigned to coordinate with Supreme People's Court of Vietnam and relevant agencies to implement the frequent conditional prisoners'  release on quarterly basis, reported Vietnam's state-run radio VOV on Thursday.

Those who enjoy early release are among such categories as ones sentenced to imprisonment with serious illnesses, pregnant women or with less than 36-month old kids, one who is the only labor in a family and one is convicted of less serious crimes due to public service duty, among others.

To those who are serving a prison sentence in a certain period of time with progress can have reduction of remaining prison sentence, reported VOV.

It is estimated that average annual cost for a prisoner reaches nearly 10 million Vietnamese dong (448.43 U.S. dollars).

Once implemented, the proposal will help save nearly 200 billion Vietnamese dong (8.97 million U.S. dollars) to the state budget each year and reduce posts of over 3,000 officers in detention facilities.