Post Offices in Hà Nội, Huế and Gia Lai Will Take In and Digitise Government Paperwork Under a New Pilot

Việt Nam has spent the last few years moving administrative procedures online, through the National Public Service Portal (Cổng Dịch vụ công quốc gia) and the VNeID identity app. That still leaves a large group of people who cannot easily use either: elderly residents, people with disabilities, people who are not comfortable with smartphones, and villagers who live far from the nearest public administration centre. A new decision by the Prime Minister tests a practical answer: use the post office down the road as the counter.

The document

Number: Quyết định 1969/QĐ-TTg
Issuer: the Prime Minister, signed by Deputy Prime Minister Phạm Thị Thanh Trà on behalf of the Prime Minister, on the proposal of the Minister of Justice
Signed and effective: 13 October 2026 (Article 2: effective from the date of signing)
Subject: approval of the Đề án thí điểm triển khai dịch vụ công qua mạng bưu chính công cộng (pilot scheme for delivering public services through the public postal network) in Hà Nội, Huế and Gia Lai
Legal bases cited: the 2010 Luật Bưu chính, Nghị định 47/2011/NĐ-CP on postal services, and Nghị định 118/2025/NĐ-CP on the one-stop-shop mechanism (as amended by Nghị định 367/2025/NĐ-CP and Nghị định 309/2026/NĐ-CP)

It is a scheme approval, not a regulation that binds the public directly. The binding rules are to come in a Government resolution on the pilot, which the Ministry of Justice must draft under the shortened law-making procedure and submit before 30 January 2027.

What the pilot does

The decision creates a new kind of counter called a Điểm cung cấp dịch vụ công qua mạng bưu chính công cộng (“public service point on the public postal network”, or simply a Point). A Point is a post office that sits outside the public administration service centres (Trung tâm Phục vụ hành chính công) and performs only the steps it is assigned.

There are two tiers:

Every participating Point helps people and businesses use digital and online public services, register and activate VNeID accounts, track the status of their files, and pay fees and charges online for all eligible procedures.
At least 10% of the postal points in each of the three localities go further: Vietnam Post (Tổng Công ty Bưu điện Việt Nam) staff there receive files, digitise them and hand back results for selected procedures. Vietnam Post staff may also do these tasks inside the public administration centres themselves.

The target is to move at least 20% of the procedures handled by the centres in each locality into this postal channel. The decision says to prioritise essential, high-volume procedures with simple files, low risk and the ability to be processed online. Results can be collected at the Point, delivered home through the public-utility postal service, or received electronically, as the applicant chooses.

Points should be placed first in remote and mountainous areas, ethnic-minority and border areas, and places far from an administration centre. Industrial zones and busy urban areas are also considered.

What postal staff may not do

The decision lists what is off-limits. Vietnam Post staff may not:

decide on, appraise, verify, approve or issue the outcome of any procedure;
rule on whether a file is valid, refuse it, or change the content, process or deadline outside their assigned scope;
ask people for, or store, passwords, authentication codes, private keys or electronic authentication devices, or use a citizen’s credentials to carry out transactions on their behalf;
access, copy, keep, transfer or use data beyond their granted permissions;
charge anything not provided for by law, or push customers into buying other services.

On data, Vietnam Post is told not to build its own database of administrative files. Data may be exchanged only through authorised systems or official connection interfaces, and personal data must not be stored on Vietnam Post’s own devices or systems unless sector-specific law allows it. Procedures involving state secrets, or needing on-site verification that a Point cannot do, are excluded.

Who does what

Ministry of Justice: leads, monitors and evaluates the scheme, and drafts the Government resolution.
Ministry of Public Security: runs the National Public Service Portal, the electronic identification and authentication system and the national population database for the pilot; sets the rules for connection, accounts, access control and audit trails; and checks cybersecurity and personal-data protection.
Ministry of Science and Technology: guides Vietnam Post on technical standards for digital infrastructure, platforms, service quality and data sharing, and evaluates whether the postal network can support a national roll-out.
People’s Committees of Hà Nội, Huế and Gia Lai: choose the Points and the list of procedures, publish them before any Point opens, issue and revoke postal staff accounts, and may suspend or end a Point’s participation.
Vietnam Post: provides premises and staff, and is liable for errors, lost files, data leaks and other incidents caused by its staff.

Timeline

Preparation: from 13 October 2026, the three localities and Vietnam Post pick Points and procedures.
Legal basis: Government resolution to be submitted before 30 January 2027.
Pilot: 12 months from the date the Government resolution takes effect.
Review: expected in Q1 2028, followed by a proposal to continue, adjust, expand nationwide or end the model.

Practical implications

For residents of the three localities, the change is mainly about distance. Someone in a remote commune of Gia Lai should be able to activate VNeID, file a simple application and pay the fee at a post office instead of travelling to a centre. Because postal staff may not handle your password or OTP, expect to type those in yourself, or to bring a relative who can.

For businesses, high-volume simple procedures may become available at more counters. The published list of procedures for each Point is the thing to watch.

For Vietnam Post, the pilot is a test of whether a state-owned postal operator can run a regulated front office with account-level audit trails and personal-data liability. The decision says nothing on fees beyond allowing payment from local budgets and “other lawful sources”, and it bans charges not provided for by law.

Open questions

Which procedures? Each locality decides and publishes its own list. None has been published yet.
How will the pilot be paid for? Localities fund it from their budgets and may contract or order services from Vietnam Post, but the payment mechanism is left to the coming resolution.
Who answers for a data leak? Vietnam Post bears liability under the contract and the law, while the Ministry of Public Security oversees security. How the 2025 Luật Bảo vệ dữ liệu cá nhân roles (controller vs. processor) apply is not spelled out.
What comes after? The scheme says the outcome will inform whether some tasks the State “need not perform directly” can be gradually handed to qualified enterprises. That is a larger policy question than three provinces.

Sources

This post is general information, not legal advice.