This initiative reflects the policy of building a socialist rule-of-law state, a state of the people, by the people, and for the people. At the same time, it demonstrates the effort to bring the Party’s policies and guidelines to the grassroots level, the level closest to the people.

“Building socialist communes and wards is not merely about establishing an administrative unit; it is about laying the foundation of the political system and creating the place where the superior nature of the socialist regime is expressed most clearly,” said Major General Nguyen Van Sau, deputy director of the Institute of Strategy and Defense History of Vietnam.

He noted that urbanization, digital transformation, and international integration have increased challenges, especially non-traditional security issues, making effective local governance more essential than ever. In many places, management remains inconsistent, administrative reform is still slow, and gaps persist between authorities and citizens.

Therefore, building the socialist commune and ward model aims to create a unified framework for social and economic development, ensuring strong national defense and security while establishing a government that is genuinely close to the people.

He also emphasized that developing a set of criteria for socialist communes and wards is very necessary.

“The criteria should not only reflect positive development directions but must also measure the level of public satisfaction and whether people genuinely benefit from the achievements.

“The criteria should focus on core issues, including building a strong political system; improving governance effectiveness in economic development; raising people’s living standards; ensuring defense and security at the grassroots level; maintaining social order; and making the environment, culture, and education true highlights. 

“Most importantly, the criteria must pay attention to the people’s level of satisfaction and trust. And above all, we must avoid formalism and the pursuit of achievements for appearances’ sake,” Sau said.

Recently, Hanoi People’s Committee Chair Vu Dai Thang announced that the city is expected to complete the selection of pilot locations and begin implementing the socialist commune and ward model from September. During the 2027–2030 period, Hanoi plans to carry out pilot tasks in selected areas. By 2030, the city will review the pilot program and finalize the criteria framework.

Sau stressed that as the country enters a new era and implements a two-tier local government system, the pilot model of socialist communes and wards must be carried out carefully and methodically.

“First of all, I believe it is necessary to select representative localities from urban, rural, mountainous, border, and island regions for pilot implementation, thereby testing and drawing lessons from practical experience.

“In the initial stage, we should focus on building institutional foundations, digital transformation, improving the quality of officials, and administrative reform. Only afterward should we expand toward comprehensive criteria covering economic, cultural, social, defense-security, and quality-of-life development,” he proposed.

The pilot process should include evaluation based on feedback from citizens, businesses, experts, and scientists in order to adjust criteria to fit practical realities.

“We must always remain vigilant against formalism, title-chasing, or dishonest reporting that fails to reflect reality. Implementation is necessary and should be carried out decisively, boldly, and synchronously, but we must proceed while continuously learning from experience, avoiding haste, subjectivity, or achievement-driven mentality.

“Realizing socialist communes and wards means improving people’s lives and strengthening public trust in the Party’s leadership and the State’s governance,” he said.

From a military perspective, he argued that socialist communes and wards should not only function as administrative units but also as “fortresses” of defense, security, digital governance, and social stability. Defense and security criteria should be comprehensive and modern, centered on people and focused on prevention capacity.

He proposed seven groups of criteria:

First, political stability and social order must be firmly maintained, preventing hotspots, riots, terrorism, or attempts to divide national unity in socialist communes and wards.

Second, it is necessary to build an all-people national defense and people-based security system associated with the people’s defense posture, security posture, and public trust posture.

Third, grassroots governments must possess modern governance and digital management capabilities, with rapid responses to crises and non-traditional security threats.

Fourth, ensuring human security is critically important.

Fifth, there must be close integration between socio-economic development and the strengthening of defense, security, and people-to-people diplomacy at the grassroots level.

Sixth, militia forces, reserve forces, and grassroots police units must be built to become elite, compact, strong, and technologically proficient.

Finally, local communities must improve resilience against fake news, information warfare, cybercrime, and the impacts of cyberspace threats.

Tran Thuong