Minister Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng: If Commune Officials Passively Wait for Instructions, We’ll Never Keep Pace with Rapidly Changing Realities

According to the Government’s official portal, on December 1st, the Ministry of Science and Technology launched an online training course on the MOOC platform for commune-level officials, civil servants, and public employees nationwide.

This program aims to equip commune-level officials with essential knowledge and skills in science, technology, innovation, and digital transformation. By doing so, the training course contributes to enhancing the capacity of the most grassroots and citizen-closest level of government.

In his opening remarks, Minister Nguyen Manh Hung emphasized that for a nation to transform, every cell within it must be healthy. Communes are the cells of the administrative machinery.

The Minister pointed out that all central policies and directives must ultimately impact people’s lives through commune-level officials. These officials are the closest to the people, the first to hear their voices.

According to the Minister, if there is a bottleneck at the commune level, the entire system will be bottlenecked. If commune officials passively wait for higher authorities to guide them step by step, we will never keep pace with the rapidly changing reality.

Highlighting the spirit of innovation at the grassroots level, Minister Nguyen Manh Hung affirmed that innovation at the commune level is not about grand inventions but about solving citizens’ problems—making it easier for them to reduce travel, speeding up procedures, and providing clearer information.

The training course is not about delivering theory but about changing the way we learn and work, with the guiding principle of “learning by doing, learning by asking.”

In his speech, the Minister instructed organizing units, particularly the Science and Technology Strategy Academy, to continuously update digital learning materials, incorporate more practical examples, and ensure all content is linked to hands-on practice. Online training platforms and software must act as “digital coaches,” observing learners’ behavior and providing proactive support, much like a coach standing beside each trainee.

For local authorities, the Minister requested maximum support for officials’ learning while linking course outcomes and post-training work performance to personnel planning and appointments.

According to the Minister, digital transformation helps transparently showcase work results, demonstrating real capabilities in a digital environment. This, in turn, supports performance evaluations based on data rather than subjective impressions.

“Evaluating officials is challenging due to a lack of data. With more data, assessments will become smoother and more objective,” the Minister noted.

During his speech, Minister Nguyen Manh Hung illustrated that while a commune previously handled 10 tasks, after restructuring the local government into two levels, it now manages 15. However, the goal is to reduce these 15 tasks to 7 by eliminating unnecessary procedures, shifting many to post-checks, automating processes with technology, and centralizing multiple public services at the provincial level through digital platforms.

“This allows commune officials to spend more time engaging with citizens, fulfilling their primary role of being close to and understanding the people. It prevents them from being overwhelmed by administrative tasks that can be automated,” the Minister concluded.