Access to local land use plans remains limited on a national scale despite the provisions of the 2013 Land Law and the 2016 Law on Access to Information which mandate the posting of local land use master plans and annual land use plans for public view in various forms, including on digital platforms. According to the 2021 PAPI survey, only one-fifth of respondents nationwide said they were aware of local land use plans since 2011.

This article is the second excerpt from the 2021 Vietnam Provincial Governance and Public Administration Performance Index (PAPI) Report. It presents key findings from the 2021 PAPI citizen surveys on how local governments performed in delivering on their mandates and public services across the eight PAPI dimensions.

The 2020 PAPI Report, released on April 14, assesses citizen experiences with national and local government performance in governance, public administration, and public service delivery at the provincial level. Apart from national and provincial findings on governance and public administration performance from permanent and temporary residents , the PAPI Report had a special section to look into drivers of migration inside and out of Vietnam. This article introduces findings from this thematic discussion in the report.

The 2020 Vietnam Provincial Governance and Public Administration Performance Index (PAPI) Report assesses citizen experiences with national and local government performance in governance, public administration, and public service delivery at the provincial level. Apart from findings on governance and public administration performance from permanent residents, in 2020, the PAPI research outreached temporary residents in six largest internal migrant-receiving provinces to understand how temporary residents perceive of and experience with local governments’ performance.

The 2020 Vietnam Provincial Governance and Public Administration Performance Index Report detailed findings on how provinces performed across the eight PAPI dimensions (Participation at Local Levels, Transparency in Local Decision-making, Vertical Accountability Toward Citizens, Control of Corruption in the Public Sector, Public Administrative Procedures, Public Service Delivery, Environmental Governance, and E-Government).

Spring in Vietnam begins with the traditional Tet which has been for thousands of years now celebrated on the first day of the first month of the Lunar Year, the ancient agricultural calendar observed by most Asian countries.

The Nung Phan Slinh is one of three main subgroups of the Nung, an ethnic minority group of the Tay-Thai language living mostly in the northern mountainous provinces of Lang Son, Bac Giang and Cao Bang. The group’s customs of celebrating birthdays for elderly people not only show their filial piety but also reflect their spiritual life and more or less reveal information about their history and culture.

The National Assembly Standing Committee has issued Resolution 684 to add the draft law revising the insurance and intellectual property laws into the 2019 law- and ordinance-making program.

Thua Thien Hue is renowned for beautiful pristine beaches and five UNESCO-recognized heritages. They are the Complex of Hue Monuments - a complex of palaces, ancient tombs, temples and shrines - recognized as a world heritage site in 1993; nha nhac (Hue royal court music), recognized as an oral and intangible heritage in 2003; moc ban (wood blocks) and chau ban (royal records) of the Nguyen dynasty, recognized as the world documentary heritage in the Memory of the World Program; the imperial archives of the Nguyen dynasty, recognized as a UNESCO Memory of the World Program in 2017.

Bac Lieu province is well-known as the cradle of “don ca tai tu” (southern folk music and songs), the musical art of southern Vietnam recognized by UNESCO as an intangible cultural heritage, and for the song “Da co hoai lang” (Night drumbeats for the absent husband) that was composed in 1919 by Cao Van Lau, a native of the province, and tells of the love, anguish and pride of a young woman who awaits her husband’s return from the battlefield as she listens to the sounds of war drums.