After merging at the commune level from 115 communes down to 42 communes, with large commune areas, the province no longer has any commune meeting new-style rural standards. This requires assessment, review, and adjustment of new-style rural criteria to suit practical conditions.

As of before July 1, 2025 - the time of operating the 2-tier local government model, the whole province had 26/115 communes recognized as meeting new-style rural standards, accounting for 22.6%, exceeding the target assigned by the Prime Minister by 0.9%. The number of communes meeting advanced new-style rural standards accounted for 19.23%, exceeding by 7.23%; communes meeting model new-style rural standards accounted for 40%, exceeding by 32%. The whole province has 139 villages and hamlets recognized as meeting new-style rural standards; 18 villages and hamlets in especially difficult communes meeting new-style rural standards; 110 villages and hamlets meeting model new-style rural standards.

However, deploying the 2-tier local government model has fundamentally changed the results of building new-style rural areas. Merging standard-meeting communes with especially difficult communes caused many criteria to no longer maintain the standard threshold, especially income criteria and the rate of multidimensional poor households.

For instance, Chiềng Sinh commune, before the merger, met new-style rural standards. However, after consolidating with Nà Sáy, Mường Thín, and Mường Khong communes to establish the new Chiềng Sinh commune with a larger population scale and area, all criteria decreased. According to the self-assessment results of the Steering Board for Building New-style Rural Areas of Chiềng Sinh commune, currently the commune only meets 12/19 criteria, while 7/19 criteria are only at the basic standard level.

Similarly, Tuần Giáo commune was established on the basis of consolidating Quài Cang commune, Quài Nưa commune, and Tuần Giáo town. With a natural area of over 10,558ha and a population of over 23,000 people, the new commune bears characteristics interlaced between urban and highland rural areas. By the end of 2025, Tuần Giáo commune self-assessed meeting 17/19 new-style rural criteria according to the set of criteria for the 2021 - 2025 period; of which 2 criteria basically met are criterion No. 1 (Planning) and criterion No. 13 (Organization of production and rural economic development).

Reality shows that applying the set of new-style rural commune criteria for the 2021 - 2025 period, which was designed for small-scale administrative units, to new communes with large scale after merger has revealed many inadequacies.

Some criteria face clear difficulties, such as criterion No. 17 (Environment). In a large area with scattered population, the collection and treatment of domestic waste is a major challenge. The waste collection model in Tuần Giáo commune only covers the central area (23/40 villages), while remote and isolated villages still have to treat waste in the open air, reducing the general environmental hygiene index of the whole commune.

For criterion No. 13 (Organization of production), cooperatives established according to the old commune scale are often small and fragmented, making it difficult to form value linkage chains large enough to suit the large area after merger.

Especially, criterion No. 1 (Planning) is considered the biggest “bottleneck” in the new context. Before the merger, planning work in Quài Cang, Quài Nưa communes and Tuần Giáo town was carried out independently, serving the separate management needs of each unit. New-style rural planning mainly focused on agricultural production infrastructure, while urban planning focused on technical infrastructure and key works. Small planning scope and residential points arranged according to old residence habits led to a lack of infrastructure interconnection between adjacent areas, causing “disruption” in traffic and canals at administrative boundaries.

This causes difficulties in determining the new commune center and prioritizing resources for investing in infrastructure connecting 40 blocks, villages, and residential groups. The requirement is to review and readjust the entire planning and public investment roadmap in an overall, synchronous direction; it is impossible to continue deploying in a fragmented manner as before.

Currently, the whole province has only 3/42 communes eligible for meeting new-style rural standards. To overcome the above inadequacies and limitations, on December 29, 2025, the Prime Minister issued Decision No. 51/2025/QĐ-TTg, stipulating the National Set of Criteria on new-style rural areas for the 2026 - 2030 period including: The set of criteria for new-style rural communes; the pilot framework for building modern new-style rural communes; regulations on provinces and cities completing the task of building new-style rural areas in the 2026 - 2030 period.

Switching to applying the set of criteria for the 2026 - 2030 period is an objective inevitable requirement. However, for the new criteria to soon come into life, Central ministries, sectors, and functional agencies need to soon issue detailed and specific instructions to the grassroots level, creating favorable conditions for localities to implement synchronously and effectively.