Piloting the establishment of socialist communes and wards in Ho Chi Minh City is a novel policy that inevitably brings about uncertainties, inquiries, and even incomplete interpretations. For this policy to genuinely integrate into everyday life with verifiable foundations, the primary and most crucial step is to correctly perceive the true nature of the Party's initiative.
Why must everything start at the commune and ward level?
Alongside the rest of the nation, Ho Chi Minh City operates a two-tier local government model, characterized by the distinct features of a mega-city with an expanding development space, a large population scale, and highly diverse demographic compositions. These factors exert immense pressure on urban infrastructure while imposing increasingly high demands on the quality of public service delivery.
In this context, communes and wards hold the most direct position in translating policies into reality. Beyond executing administrative decisions, communes and wards serve as vivid testing grounds for the effectiveness of development models.
From the perspective of national governance, communes and wards represent the most direct contact point between the State and the people; the setting where the majority of interactions between citizens and the political system take place; the provider of essential public services; and the space where community culture, social trust, and civic consciousness are forged.
Consequently, communes and wards function simultaneously as the arena for promoting the direct mastery of the people under the motto "people know, people discuss, people do, people check, people supervise, and people enjoy," and as the most authentic yardstick measuring the leadership effectiveness of the Party, the governing capacity of the government, and the cohesion of residential communities.
Party Congress documents have established that Vietnam's socialist model aims toward a goal by the people and for the people, centering on quality of life and human happiness. Therefore, communes and wards, which are the level of government closest to local dwellers, must become vital spaces to transform the values and characteristics of Vietnamese socialism from macro-level visions into concrete results in everyday life.
Thus, the core emphasis for correctly understanding socialist communes and wards is to recognize that this is not a model imposed on residential life, but rather a requirement to build a robust grassroots foundation, a serving government, and a civilized, compassionate, and harmoniously developing community that places people at the center. The core content of this model is placing citizens at the focal point. The commune and ward government must function as an institution serving the people, guaranteeing their rights to participate, supervise, and benefit in matters directly affecting the community.
All activities of the public apparatus must aim to meet the legitimate needs of the people, improve their quality of life, and strengthen social trust.
The value of the socialist commune and ward model must be demonstrated through concrete transformations in daily life, ranging from governance quality and living environmental standards to development opportunities, community cohesion, and public satisfaction levels. Among these, the leadership of grassroots Party organizations plays a guiding role in ensuring the unified operation of the political system, promoting the people's right to mastery, and safeguarding the objective of development for the sake of humanity and the community.
This practice also aligns with the direction currently deployed in Hanoi and several other localities. On July 8, 2026, the Hanoi Party Committee selected Thu Lam and Phuc Thinh communes to pilot the socialist commune and ward model. This demonstrates that building socialist communes and wards is a shared strategic vision of the Party for major urban centers, including Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
Accurate understanding prevents distorted interpretations
Recently, certain distorted interpretations regarding the policy of building socialist communes and wards have emerged on social media. These incorrect understandings must be identified and refuted based on scientific and practical rationale.
First, some opinions deliberately link the establishment of socialist communes and wards to the subsidy mechanism, outdated management models, or the bureaucratic regimentation of residential life.
This represents a misunderstanding, or even a distortion, of the policy's true nature. While the old model (prior to the Doi Moi reforms) focused on centralized management, homogenization, egalitarianism, and the absolute control of the administrative apparatus, today's socialist commune and ward model is built upon entirely different foundations: a socialist-oriented market economy, the development of modern productive forces, innovation, digital transformation, modern governance, and the active role of residential communities. It reflects a transition from administrative management to serving governance.
Another misinterpretation asserts that socialist communes and wards are merely slogans or formalistic movements.
In reality, socialist communes and wards should not be understood simply as a political title or a new administrative model. This is a model of "grassroots governance" in which the core values of socialism are institutionalized, organized into practice, and verified through reality.
The value of this approach lies in gradually bringing the objective of building socialism from general concepts into the daily lives of citizens. People clearly perceive this value through the quality of their children's schools, healthcare standards, governmental transparency, living environments, safety, job opportunities, and the capacity to be heard and respected as agents of development. When governance efficiency is reflected through life quality, social trust, and public satisfaction, such a policy cannot be dismissed as a mere slogan.
Therefore, it is essential to recognize that the intrinsic nature of a socialist commune and ward is to build a strong grassroots foundation, a serving government, and a civilized, compassionate, and harmoniously developing community centered around the people. Commune and ward governments must guarantee citizens' rights to participation, supervision, and enjoyment, while all public apparatus activities are directed toward elevating living standards, reinforcing social trust, and constructing a sustainably developing community.
These concrete transformations in every neighborhood and hamlet serve as the most persuasive rebuttal against claims that building socialist communes and wards is merely a slogan or a formalistic movement.
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