Additional comments on the structure and composition of the Provincial Social Trust Index

Mr. Vu Van Tien, member of the Presidium, Head of the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front (VFF) chaired the workshop.

Speaking at the workshop, Mr. Vu Van Tien said that, implementing the direction of the General Secretary at the 1st Congress of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Party Committee and Central Associations for the 2025-2030 term on assigning the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front to study, develop and organize an independent assessment of the Provincial Social Trust Index, the Standing Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Executive Committee identified this as an important, new and difficult political task of long-term significance for strengthening people's trust, enhancing social consensus and improving local governance efficiency.

In the past time, the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee has deployed tasks according to a cautious and methodical roadmap, laying a scientific and practical foundation as a continuous requirement. The scientific consultation workshop on December 12, 2025 was held with the participation of many scientists, experts and representatives of relevant agencies. The results of the workshop were widely compiled and published and initially achieved some important consensus.

At the workshop, experts and scientists focused on discussing frankly, scientifically and substantially on key groups of issues such as the suitability of the current social trust measurement framework; overall structure, groups of component indexes, number of pillars, content of each index group; correlation of the Social Trust Index with current indexes; selection of measurement methods to ensure science and feasibility when implemented at the provincial level.

Dr. Bui Hong Viet, Deputy Director of the Department of Research - Social Public Opinion, Central Propaganda and Mass Mobilization Committee, said that it is necessary to clearly define the construction of social trust at the provincial level, both ensuring concision and clearly defining specific goals and scope. The Social Trust Index needs to target target targeted subjects directly and regularly in contact with the government. The index set needs to be linked to in-depth statistics and a scale. This is a difference from the survey in Sociology and the survey in general public opinion. In addition, the way of asking questions needs to be standardized, avoiding the case where the respondent will answer according to habits.

Receiving the opinions presented at the Workshop, Mr. Vu Van Tien affirmed that after the Workshop, based on the scientific and enthusiastic contributions of experts, scientists and representatives of relevant agencies, the Propaganda Department of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee will advise the Standing Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee to continue researching, absorbing and perfecting the structure and composition of the Provincial Social Trust Index. This will be an important basis for synthesizing, reporting and submitting to the Secretariat for consideration and direction before officially implementing in the coming time.

The Provincial Social Trust Index is built according to a multidimensional approach, based on people's experiences, combining the measurement of institutional trust and social - community trust. Social trust is understood as the assessment, feeling and expectation of the people for the state, society and the future of development, formed on the basis of practical interaction with public institutions and the living environment. The index aims at 3 goals, including: independently assessing the level of trust of people at the provincial level; being a monitoring and social criticism tool of the Vietnam Fatherland Front; providing a scientific basis for local governments in adjusting policies and improving the quality of governance.

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