The National Assembly (NA) on June 24 passed the Law on Cadres and Civil Servants (amended) with 418 out of 423 deputies voting in favor, accounting for 87.45 percent of the total number of legislators.
Under the law, cadres are Vietnamese citizens who are elected, approved, appointed, or assigned to hold a position or title for a specific term in an agency of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV), the State, the Vietnam Fatherland Front (VFF), or socio-political organizations at the central, provincial, or commune level. Cadres are part of the official payroll and receive salaries from the state budget.
Meanwhile, civil servants are Vietnamese citizens recruited into a job position within an agency of the CPV, the State, the VFF, or socio-political organizations at the central, provincial, or commune level. Those also include individuals working in agencies or units under the People's Army who are not officers, professional soldiers, and defense workers or officials; in agencies or units under the People's Public Security who are not officers, non-commissioned officers, or soldiers serving under the professional regime, and police workers; and in key organizations that are not cipher personnel. Civil servants are also part of the official payroll and receive salaries from the state budget.
The revised law improves regulations to implement the policy of building a unified, streamlined, and interconnected civil service system from the central to the commune level, eliminating the distinction between commune- and provincial-level cadres and civil servants.
It also supplements and refines provisions to shift the management of cadres and civil servants to a job-position-based approach, placing job positions at the center. Recruitment, assignment, evaluation, training, planning, and appointment will now be based on job requirements and the outcomes and deliverables of assigned tasks.
Notably, the law also improves mechanisms to attract high-quality human resources and introduces policies for talented individuals in public service, aiming to institutionalize the Politburo’s resolutions No. 57-NQ/TW dated December 22, 2024; No. 66-NQ/TW dated April 30, 2025; and No. 68-NQ/TW dated May 4, 2025.
The amended law will take effect on July 1, 2025, except for provisions on civil servant evaluation in Section 3, Chapter IV, which will be implemented from January 1, 2026.
By no later than July 1, 2027, ministries, sectors, central agencies, and local authorities must complete the placement of civil servants, who were recruited before this law takes effect, into job positions and corresponding ranks, in line with the provisions of this law.
