The "number plates" at the foot of the "gate to heaven"

At the foot of the "heavenly gate" in Trung Ly commune, the houses of the Mong, Thai, and Dao ethnic minorities nestle against the mountainside. In this border region, changes are evident: the elderly are learning to use smartphones, electronic identity verification accounts are being activated, and administrative procedures are gradually becoming more accessible to the people.

Mr. Trinh Van Tien guides people on how to use smartphones to access online public services and digital utilities. Photo: Tang Thuy

The files that crossed the mountains

One morning in Pá Búa village, Mr. Sùng A Dế (74 years old, a Hmong man) came to the community center to ask the Trung Lý commune officials for guidance on administrative procedures using the VNeID application. He took out his smartphone from his jacket pocket. With the commune officials' guidance, he operated the application quite quickly. The image of Mr. Dế independently using his phone to access public services shows the changes that are creeping into every village in this border region.

Trung Ly is a particularly disadvantaged border commune in the province, with 7.8km of border shared with Laos and a population of approximately 7,335 people distributed across 15 villages. The area is vast, the population sparse, and transportation is difficult in many places. Therefore, digital transformation here begins with concrete actions such as: correcting inaccurate civil registration information, cleaning up population data, guiding people to activate electronic identification, and supporting people in submitting online applications. From July 1, 2025 to May 21, 2026, the Commune Public Administrative Service Center received 940 applications and resolved 939, achieving a rate of 99.89%. The rate of online applications reached 99.79%; the rate of on-time and early resolution reached 98.5%; and online payments reached 100%. Behind these figures are 940 instances of people receiving support in completing online procedures. For many people, each time they apply for a profile, they are guided through creating an account, entering information, or performing actions on their phone.

In parallel with the Public Administrative Service Center, the commune police actively participated in cleaning up population data, managing residency, and implementing Project 06. During the reporting period, the unit received and processed 131 permanent residency registration applications; cleaned up historical residency data for 325 cases; and answered 438 residency verification forms. 100% of applications were processed correctly and within the deadline. In the first six months of 2026 alone, the commune police received 1,286 level 2 electronic identification applications. To date, 3,103 out of 4,793 citizens over 14 years old in the commune possess level 2 electronic identification accounts, reaching 64.74%. From the end of April 2026, after being provided with identity card receiving devices, the unit received an additional 125 applications for identity cards for residents in the area.

According to Lieutenant Colonel Vi Van Nooc, Head of the Trung Ly Commune Police, with a large area and a scattered population across 15 villages, the implementation of Project 06 requires the police force to constantly be present at the grassroots level. In some remote villages, where people work in the fields from morning until evening, officers and soldiers have to take advantage of their free time to go there to assist with activating VNeID, reviewing data, or guiding residency procedures. In many cases, discrepancies in civil registration information, birth dates, and family relationships have existed for many years, requiring officers to coordinate with the judicial department and village heads to cross-check each file.

Local people and the silent transformation.

These trips to the villages took place under challenging conditions. Trung Ly currently has 7 villages with no mobile phone or internet coverage: Co Cai, Ca Giang, Canh Cong, Ta Com, Lin, Ma Hac, and Tung. Many households do not have the means to buy smartphones; the elderly, those with limited literacy, or those not fluent in the common language still face difficulties accessing digital platforms. To support the people, the commune established 15 community digital technology teams, corresponding to the 15 villages, with the participation of commune officials, police officers, youth union members, teachers, village heads, etc., to guide people in installing VNeID, creating public service accounts, supporting online payments, disseminating information during village meetings, and visiting individual households when needed.

Mr. Trinh Van Tien, a specialist at the Trung Ly Commune Public Administrative Service Center, was seconded from Nam Sam Son Ward to work in the commune in August 2025. In the beginning, differences in language, customs, and geographical distance caused him considerable confusion. After accompanying the digital technology team to the villages, waiting for people to return from working in the fields to guide them through the procedures, he realized that the most time-consuming aspect was helping people trust and readily embrace the new technology. “Initially, I thought the people in the highlands would be hesitant about technology. But after traveling a lot, I realized that with guidance, they adapt very quickly. Some elderly people even operate it more skillfully than I expected,” Mr. Tien recounted.

It is estimated that currently about 75% of households in the commune have smartphones; 100% of commune officials and civil servants are proficient in using digital platforms for their work. These changes have not completely eliminated the geographical distance of the border region, but they are gradually narrowing the gap in accessing public services.

Mr. Tran Van Thang, Chairman of the People's Committee of Trung Ly commune, said that the locality continues to review telecommunications infrastructure, propose solutions to areas with poor signal coverage, and maintain guidance for people to use public services and VNeID in their daily lives. For mountainous areas, the important thing is not the percentage of online applications or the number of activated identity verification accounts, but rather the ability of people to use digital utilities to reduce travel time and access policies more conveniently.

At the foot of the "gateway to heaven," "identification numbers" are being formed from the activation of an identity account, the submission of an online application, and an elderly person completing the procedure for the first time. All of these are creating changes that few people could have imagined before.

Tang Thuy

Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/nhung-ban-so-nbsp-duoi-chan-cong-troi-289732.htm