For the last five years, 600 young cadres have been appointed vice chairmen of communal People’s Committees at 64 poor districts across the country. They’re sent off to work with a university degree, very little experience, and a good deal of energy and fresh perspective.

For the last five years, 600 young cadres have been appointed vice chairmen of communal People’s Committees at 64 poor districts across the country.

The Ministry of Home Affairs held a conference to evaluate the five-year results of this pilot project. Thus far, it seems to have been a success.

Le Anh Duong, deputy chairman of the Bac Giang People’s Committee, said young intellectuals like to tackle new and shifting challenges.

With youthfulness and dynamism, these vice-chairmen of communes’ People’s Committees had reduced the inertia and slowness of the grassroots cadres, making efforts to fulfill their assigned tasks, he said.

While Vu Dang Minh, director of the ministry’s Department of Youth Affairs, who is also the director of the pilot project, said the biggest barrier to bringing young intellectuals back to the countryside was that local authorities didn’t support the idea that young people with no experience might be able to make a positive impact.

This skepticism meant that the young communal cadres met many difficulties to complete their tasks, Minh said. It was undeniable that young intellectuals had improved the quality of grass-roots officials, and changed their awareness in their performance of tasks, he added.

Young cadres also changed the working style of older communal cadres and civil servants. With their advanced education, it was easy for them to apply new information technology in their jobs, contributing to increasing the operational efficiency of the communal People’s Committees.

Young cadres have advised local authorities in implementing land reclamation, rehabilitation and expansion of production land, calling on local people to carry out the relocation, resettlement and planning, and fighting against social evils and backward practices.

Assigned as deputy chairman of Ba Dien Commune People’s Committee in the central province of Quang Ngai since 2012, Nguyen Anh Khoa said that the pilot project had been successful in strengthening young intellectuals through work on poor communes, contributing to the nation’s socio-economic development.

He said if the project was to move forward, a training regime for communal People’s Committee vice-chairmen should be set for two years. 

VNS