Need to be reasonable and in line with the people's wishes
At the quarterly meeting in the first quarter of 2026 with provincial and city Party committees, Party committees, Party committees, 4 Offices, and non-business units directly under the Central Government, Politburo Member, Standing Secretary of the Secretariat Tran Cam Tu requested the Central Organization Committee to promptly summarize one year of operating the 3-level government.
The Standing Committee of the Secretariat requests to propose solutions to remove difficulties and obstacles to improve the operational efficiency of commune and ward-level governments; urgently complete the arrangement of residential groups, villages, and public non-business units according to regulations.
Regarding this content, many readers have sent opinions to Lao Dong Newspaper, expressing their agreement with the arrangement policy, but said that it is necessary to implement it flexibly and in accordance with the reality of each locality.
Reader Pham Vinh Quang said that whether importing or separating, it is necessary to be reasonable, in line with the people's wishes and ensure substantive operational efficiency, avoiding increasing focal points, increasing costs but low efficiency.
Reader Huynh Van Thuy proposed that the Ministry of Home Affairs should develop many options, which can be piloted in some localities before widespread implementation.
According to readers, the arrangement needs to take into account factors such as population, residential area, customs and habits, names, human resources, cadre qualifications and organizational structure, while ensuring the principle of "people know, people discuss, people do, people check, people supervise, people benefit".
Sharing the same view, reader Dung Binh believes that the village merger is necessary, but it must be in accordance with culture, religion, customs and geographical location.
Readers suggest that we should not only focus on population or area criteria, but need to aim for long-term socio-economic development efficiency.
Have clear enough, stable policies
From another perspective, reader Son Hung Dinh believes that the criterion of household size should not be rigidly applied, especially in mountainous areas, where people live scattered and are far apart.
According to readers, in places with few households, streamlining the apparatus and arranging a Party Cell Secretary concurrently as Village Head and a person in charge of Front work is appropriate.
From an expert's perspective, Master of Public Policy Nguyen Tuan Anh said that the biggest difficulty currently is that village heads are having to shoulder more work, but working conditions are still limited.
According to him, at the grassroots level, many tasks are currently focused on villages and residential groups; from grasping the population situation, propagating policies, participating in maintaining security and order, mediating conflicts, mobilizing people to implement new regulations to coordinating to handle daily problems arising.
Many tasks are difficult, sensitive, but allowances, support means, operating funds or coordination mechanisms have not kept up," he said.
Another issue, according to experts, is that in many places, village and residential group officials are still not really reassured because they are in the waiting stage for review and arrangement.
Many people are still wondering what their position will be like, what the regime will be like, whether to continue working or not, if they stop, how will it be resolved. That mentality, if prolonged, will affect the quality of work," he assessed.
From the above reality, Mr. Nguyen Tuan Anh believes that the upcoming regulations need to remove some basic points such as more clearly defining the role, tasks, and authority of Village Heads and Neighborhood Group Leaders; clarifying the relationship of coordination with commune-level authorities and mass organizations; and at the same time having clear and stable policies so that people working at the grassroots level can feel secure in their work.
Currently, according to Decree 33/2023/ND-CP, non-specialized workers in villages and residential groups with no more than 3 titles (including Secretary of the Party Cell, Village Head or Residential Group Head, Head of the Fatherland Front Committee) are entitled to monthly allowances. If the Law has other regulations, it shall be implemented according to the provisions of that law.
Encourage concurrently holding the title of Secretary of the Party Cell while also being Village Head, Neighborhood Group Leader or Head of the Village and Neighborhood Group Fatherland Front Committee.
