Starting a business in your forties
Nearly 1 year after deciding to resign and leave the public sector, Ms. Bui Thi Hong (born in 1986), former land administration official of a commune in Lao Cai City, now Lao Cai ward) is preparing to start a business in her forties.
When Lao Cai province implemented the arrangement of administrative units, at the beginning of July 2025, she decided to resign according to the policy in Decree 178/2024 (amended and supplemented by Decree 67/2025).
As a land administration official, Ms. Hong's salary coefficient is 3.33, total income is about 9.6 million VND/month, including salary and public service allowances. Sharing the reason for leaving the public sector, Ms. Hong said that the pressure of work is high while income does not meet the needs of family life.
I feel that I am still young, still capable of working, so I want to go outside to try my hand, find a new direction to improve my income" - she said and said that quitting is completely a personal choice, not because I am subject to staff reduction or do not meet professional requirements. After the merger, the agency still arranges jobs in the field of responsibility. However, due to the nature of the job and prolonged pressure, she decided to stop to find another way.
Currently, she is building a nutritional kitchen model, specializing in providing meals calculated in portions, controlling energy for people who need to lose weight, gain weight or improve their health.
According to Ms. Hong, this is not only a business activity but also a direction associated with the desire to spread a healthy lifestyle to the community, so income issues are not emphasized.
After going out, I realized there are still many opportunities to learn. The most important thing is to be proactive in time, reduce pressure and be able to build a longer-term direction for myself" - Ms. Hong shared.
Although she has left the public sector, Ms. Hong said that she is still following the lives of officials, civil servants, and public employees who are working and hopes that the salary policy will be improved soon in a more substantive direction.
Ms. Hong's concerns are also an issue of concern to many officials and civil servants in the context that the public sector salary policy is continuing to be improved in the direction of paying salaries associated with job positions and work efficiency.
Breakthrough to improve salaries and bonuses
Salary reform is one of the breakthroughs to improve salaries and bonuses of cadres, civil servants, and public employees in the public sector.
Contributing opinions on the salary reform process, National Assembly Deputy Siu Huong (Gia Lai Delegation) said that implementing local government at 2 levels, the commune level currently receives a large volume of tasks from the previous district level transferred back, part of the tasks at the provincial level are decentralized while still fully performing existing tasks.
In particular, professional departments at the commune level have to advise in many fields with limited human resources.
According to the delegate, the base salary is expected to increase by about 8% from July 1, 2026. However, in the long term, considering the actual conditions of the commune level today, it is proposed that the Government consider adjusting the salary reform policy regime commensurate with the job positions of commune-level cadres, civil servants, and public employees.
The female delegate also said that in the near future, a summary of one year of the implementation of 2-level local government will be carried out. Therefore, it is proposed that the Government objectively and comprehensively assess, closely following the reality of the operation of 2-level local government after one year of implementation.
