Việt Nam’s 83% Satisfaction Index: Encouraging or Suspicious?

In May 2026, the Ministry of Home Affairs announced the results of the 2025 Satisfaction Index of Public Administrative Services (SIPAS 2025): 83.09%. By comparison, the figure was 83.94% the previous year, 82.66% the year before that, and further back, 80.08%. [1] 

Based on this sequence, one could easily conclude that Việt Nam’s administrative system is steadily improving, aside from a slight dip in the past year. 

Yet, when scrutinized, a glaring contradiction emerges: why does this high, stable figure contrast so glaringly with the often frustrating reality of the public’s actual experiences? 

Anxiety Never Appears on a Survey Form

For many individuals, the overwhelming emotion when entering a government office is not “satisfaction” or “dissatisfaction,” but anxiety.

This anxiety stems from unpredictable factors: whether the attending official will be irritable, whether a carefully prepared document might still be deemed missing, or exactly how much one must “speak softly and smile politely” to ensure that the procedure goes smoothly.

In Việt Nam, citizens often treat administrative procedures as an emotional endurance test. They must prepare the correct attitude just as meticulously as the correct paperwork.

A mere glance, a cleared throat, or a curt response from an official is enough to instill fear. Once the process concludes, the resulting sigh of relief is not from a feeling of satisfaction but from escape.

In 2023, the Ministry of Home Affairs proposed a public service ethics code requiring officials and civil servants to “refrain from shouting at or harassing citizens and refrain from bureaucracy and arrogance.” [2] 

By 2025, Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính personally inspected public administrative centers in the Mekong Delta, reminding officials to “absolutely not allow arrogant behavior or situations in which people must ask for favors from officials.” [3] The necessity of such a reminder from the head of government highlights an ongoing failure. 

Furthermore, in 2026, the Supreme People’s Court of Việt Nam issued new rules of conduct emphasizing that court staff must not act “arrogantly, threateningly, or solicit bribes,” nor deliberately prolong the processing of citizens’ requests. [4]

The 2024 survey claimed that nearly 90% of people did not experience harassment from civil servants. [5] Yet, almost everyone seems to have a story of being sent back and forth, of officials repeatedly asking for supplemental documents, or of being forced to “play along appropriately.”

Everyone feels that they belong to “the remaining 10%.” Perhaps this remains the survey system’s most remarkable achievement: convincing 90% of the actual population that they somehow exist completely outside the statistics.

The Managing Agency is Also the Surveying Agency

Conducted under the supervision of the Ministry of Home Affairs, SIPAS 2025 utilized 36,000 survey forms across 720 communes and wards in 34 provinces and cities. 

While this massive scale seems designed to project objectivity and comprehensiveness, it obscures a fundamental conflict of interest: the Ministry of Home Affairs manages the administrative apparatus while simultaneously measuring public satisfaction with it. This dynamic raises serious doubts regarding the survey’s independence and reliability.

To prevent such conflicts, many countries entrust these surveys to independent research organizations or external auditing bodies. Because Việt Nam does not employ this separation, readers should scrutinize and interpret its official data with caution.

Furthermore, when local authorities distribute surveys or ask for feedback directly at government offices, it is completely understandable that citizens feel compelled to avoid criticizing the officials actively serving them.

A person might complain openly to family members, neighbors, or social media, but they will rarely provide honest criticism in a form that could be traced back to their home address.

Statistics That Receive Less Attention

A careful review of the report reveals several important details that state media largely glossed over.

To begin, the satisfaction gap between the highest-ranked and lowest-ranked localities reached a substantial 13.2%, ranging from 77.92% to 91.12%.

This significant difference indicates that the quality of administrative services depends heavily on geography, pointing to a geographic inequality that official announcements only briefly acknowledge.

Furthermore, the survey indicates that bureaucratic harassment is actually increasing. While 11.05% of respondents said civil servants still caused difficulties and 8.88% reported paying unofficial costs, the equivalent figure for official harassment in 2024 was 9.94% (meaning 90.06% reported none). This data contradicts the official narrative that administrative reforms are “moving in the right direction.”

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, there is a clear disconnect between public interest and public engagement. Although interest in policymaking remains relatively high—between 77.88% and 82.60% according to SIPAS 2024—the proportion of individuals who actually participate in providing feedback remains below 50%. [6]

The most common method—direct comments at residential meetings—reached only 46.83%, and online participation hovered around 10%.

Ultimately, public interest without active participation signals mistrust rather than satisfaction.

Digital Transformation is Not Yet a Popular Choice

Although the government has long prioritized digital transformation within its administrative reforms, SIPAS 2025 reveals a reality that falls far short of official declarations.

Only 39.11% of individuals use the Internet to access policy information, 21.18% utilize online platforms for policy feedback, and just 29.87% engage with online public services.

With nearly 70% of the population still avoiding online channels for administrative procedures this year, an important question emerges. Is the digital infrastructure fundamentally inadequate, is there a profound lack of public trust, or are these online procedures more complicated and less effective in practice than the government advertises?

The report offers no answer.

Hải Phòng Leads, Cao Bằng Ranks Last

In SIPAS 2025, Hải Phòng, Quảng Ninh, and Đồng Nai emerged as the top three localities, while Lai Châu, Lạng Sơn, and Cao Bằng fell into the bottom group.

Mirroring the results of previous years, a striking pattern becomes evident. The leading provinces are typically economically developed areas possessing large local budget revenues, allowing for heavier investments in administrative systems and infrastructure.

Conversely, the provinces near the bottom are predominantly mountainous northern regions that face more difficult socio-economic conditions.

This uneven administrative quality is not simply a matter of one locality possessing “better discipline” or “better attitudes.” It is the result of uneven resource distribution from the very beginning. 

While the report dismisses this issue as a “systemic limitation,” the term is a far gentler phrase than the reality it represents.

Public Expectations Remain Higher Than Satisfaction

The report indicates that the proportion of citizens who want service quality to continue improving ranges from 86.22% to 88.65%. This can be interpreted as such: while the public maintains hope for administrative improvement, their current experiences consistently fall short of their expectations.

It is particularly notable that in 2023, citizens wanted to improve the top three areas, all of which focused on human interactions rather than bureaucratic procedures.

Specifically, they demanded improvements in the attitude and service spirit of officials (85.12%); the handling of complaints and feedback (85.11%); and officials’ professional competence in resolving cases (85.03%). [7]

Three years later, it is evident that these fundamental expectations have barely shifted.

Value Tied to Accountability

An index is meaningless unless it drives concrete change. 

If the government utilizes SIPAS to adjust policies, allocate resources, enforce leadership accountability, and genuinely address citizen grievances, it can serve as a powerful evaluation tool.

However, if SIPAS functions as a mere annual bureaucratic ritual—a cycle of surveying, compiling, publishing, and ignoring—then grand figures like 83.09% or 90% hold zero substantive meaning.

Data only acquires value when accountability, tangible consequences, and a feedback mechanism that the public actually trusts firmly anchor it.

Until these conditions are met, official rates of satisfaction or dissatisfaction remain nothing more than numbers on a page. Citizens will continue to walk into administrative offices burdened by an emotion that no official survey bothers to measure: anxiety and apprehension.

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Thiên Di wrote this article in Vietnamese and published it in Luật Khoa Magazine on May 25, 2026. Đàm Vĩnh Hằng translated it into English for The Vietnamese Magazine.