On September 10, 2025, Vietnam’s Ministry of Home Affairs set in motion a sweeping review and reform of how villages and residential groups are managed, issuing Official Document No. 7238 to the People’s Committees of provinces and cities nationwide. This move, reported by multiple Vietnamese news outlets, marks a pivotal step in the country’s ongoing efforts to modernize local governance and streamline administrative processes at the grassroots level.
The Ministry’s directive implements Decision No. 1589 of the Prime Minister, which outlines the plan for putting into action the Law on Organization of Local Government 2025. Under this decision, the Ministry of Home Affairs has been tasked with drafting a new Government Decree. This decree will set out the organization and operation of villages and residential groups—known locally as thôn and tổ dân phố—as well as establish policies for those who participate in community activities on a non-specialized basis.
According to reporting from LSVN and other sources, the Ministry’s document is not just a bureaucratic exercise. It’s a call to action for local governments. Provinces and cities are required to submit detailed summary reports on how regulations regarding the organization and activities of villages and residential groups have been implemented. These reports, due before September 10, 2025, are essential for the Ministry’s compilation and research as it prepares the draft decree.
What’s expected in these reports? Quite a lot, actually. Localities must provide comprehensive information on staffing arrangements, including the number of vice heads of villages and residential groups, the number of non-specialized activity participants, and the procedures for electing village heads and their deputies. But that’s not all. The Ministry wants a full picture of community life: details on how communities discuss and decide on issues, the regulations and customs in place, and the processes for electing and replacing local leaders.
One particularly interesting aspect is the focus on democracy at the grassroots. The Ministry emphasizes the importance of community participation in decision-making—whether it’s through open discussions, voting on local matters, or setting up and following village regulations and customs. This approach is meant to reflect the real voice of the people in how their neighborhoods are run.
The reports must also include up-to-date statistics on the number of villages and residential groups, covering not only the typical areas but also special regions such as remote, island, and border areas, as well as places with complex security situations. Localities need to detail any new units that have been established, merged, or dissolved, and explain the conditions and procedures for these changes. Even something as seemingly minor as naming, renaming, or deleting the names of villages and residential groups—or merging residential clusters into existing units—needs to be covered in detail. According to the Ministry, these actions directly impact the effectiveness of management at the grassroots level after administrative reorganization.
A major part of the Ministry’s request involves policies for non-specialized activity participants. These are the people—often volunteers or part-time workers—who help keep local communities running but aren’t full-time government employees. Localities are required to report how many such participants they have, the roles they play (including cases where one person performs several functions), and the levels of subsidies or allowances they receive. The Ministry wants to know the highest and lowest subsidy rates, as set by both central and local authorities, and how these are being implemented. This includes any support for those who juggle multiple roles and the specific rules governing such arrangements.
But the Ministry isn’t just collecting data for the sake of it. The ultimate goal is to guide localities in proposing practical, region-appropriate regulations. For example, local governments are encouraged to suggest the number of vice heads and non-specialized participants that make sense for their unique circumstances. They’re also asked to recommend mechanisms for implementing community resolutions, managing local customs, and simplifying the election and dismissal of village leaders. The Ministry’s document explicitly calls for proposals to streamline the formation, merger, dissolution, naming, and renaming of villages and residential groups. The idea is to cut red tape and make administrative procedures less cumbersome.
One of the more technical—but crucial—issues addressed is the scale of households required to establish a new village or residential group. Localities can propose minimum and maximum household numbers, or even suggest that this be left to local discretion. The Ministry also seeks input on how to best reorganize villages and residential groups to match the management capacity of new commune-level administrative units, ensuring that any changes lead to more efficient and effective governance. For example, there could be mandatory mergers based on population size, or localities might be empowered to develop their own reorganization plans, as long as they align with the government’s overall direction.
Another area under review is the standards and election procedures for village heads, deputies, and vice heads. The Ministry wants localities to propose specific standards—such as required qualifications or other conditions—to improve the quality of these grassroots leaders. At the same time, there’s an emphasis on simplifying the election and dismissal processes, so that communities can more easily choose and replace their representatives when necessary.
On the financial side, the Ministry is looking for suggestions on funding mechanisms. Localities should propose how central and local funding can be allocated (for example, whether subsidies should be set by type of village or at the commune level), and offer ideas for mobilizing other financial resources to ensure that villages and residential groups can function smoothly. This is especially important for sustaining the work of non-specialized participants, whose contributions are vital but often underappreciated.
In the words of the Ministry’s official communication, “The opinions and proposals of localities will serve as the basis for developing and finalizing the draft Government Decree on the organization and operation of villages and residential groups, as well as policies for non-specialized activity participants, ensuring suitability with local realities during administrative reorganization and the two-level local government structure.”
It’s a tall order, but one that reflects Vietnam’s determination to build a more responsive, efficient, and democratic system of local governance. The coming months will reveal how provinces and cities respond—and what the new decree will ultimately mean for the millions of people living in Vietnam’s villages and residential groups. As the process unfolds, all eyes will be on how these grassroots reforms take shape and whether they deliver on the promise of better, more accountable local government.
