Phu Quy Special Zone (Lam Dong province) has an area of about 18km2, a population of more than 32,200 people, about 56 nautical miles (equivalent to 120km) from the mainland.
This is a completely isolated area, without road traffic connections like mountainous or deep-lying areas on land.
Travel completely depends on the sea, the main means of transport are ships and boats and are heavily affected by weather.
At times of rough seas, strong winds or tropical depressions, ships have to stop operating. At times during the year, the island is isolated from a few days to weeks.
In the medical field, hospital transfer also faces many obstacles. Some emergency cases require hiring helicopters with costs of up to hundreds of millions of VND to take patients to the mainland for treatment.
Economic conditions on Phu Quy island are still difficult, while living costs are significantly higher than on the mainland, fluctuating from 30-50% due to dependence on freight transportation.
People's income mainly depends on seafood exploitation, purchasing and processing, but the source of income in recent years has tended to decrease.
From the above reality, on March 21, Phu Quy Special Zone People's Committee (Lam Dong province) said that it had sent a document to the Provincial Department of Home Affairs proposing to review and adjust the allowance regime in the area.
According to the locality, the current regional allowance level is 0.3 and the special allowance is 30%, unchanged before and after the merger. However, this level is assessed as not suitable for the actual socio-economic conditions of the locality today.
Phu Quy Special Economic Zone People's Committee said that through comparison, some special economic zones with similar or better socio-economic conditions are entitled to higher allowances.
On these bases, the locality proposed that the Department of Home Affairs summarize and report to the Provincial People's Committee to propose to the Ministry of Home Affairs to adjust and increase regional allowances from 0.3 to 0.7; and at the same time increase special allowances from 30% to 50% (as in the previous draft of the Ministry of Home Affairs).
According to the Phu Quy Special Zone People's Committee, the adjustment will contribute to ensuring commensurate with the actual conditions, creating motivation for cadres, civil servants, public employees and armed forces to feel secure in their work, especially those from the mainland who are transferred to the island.
Many officials working in the locality also proposed that the Central Government consider adding Phu Quy to the list of particularly difficult areas in island and sea areas according to Decree 76/2019/ND-CP.
This is to create a basis for applying appropriate preferential policies, similar to frontline islands such as Ly Son (Quang Ngai province) or Con Co (Quang Tri province).
At the same time, it is proposed to adjust the allowance coefficients in Circular 23/2025/TT-BNV and Circular 24/2025/TT-BNV in the direction of increasing the regional allowance coefficient from 0.3 to 0.7 and increasing the special allowance from 30% to 50% to suit the geographical and specific conditions of the frontline islands.
