Avoid leaving cultural houses deserted

People are trained on agricultural and rural tourism development at the Chi Lang commune cultural house.

Currently, the whole province has 126 commune and ward cultural houses and 1,639/1,646 villages and residential groups have cultural houses. After the merger from 194 to 65 communes and wards, the whole province now has 61 surplus commune cultural houses; the number of surplus commune cultural houses is handed over by the People's Committee of the old district to the People's Committee of the newly received communes.

Mr. Duong Minh Tue, Deputy Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said: Implementing Official Dispatch No. 1238/UBND-NC dated June 19, 2025 of the Provincial People's Committee on guiding the functions, tasks and powers of specialized departments and equivalent units under the People's Committees at the commune level, the Department has issued an official dispatch guiding the functions, tasks and powers of the cultural and social departments under the new People's Committees at the commune level, including the management of grassroots cultural institutions; orienting the management and promotion of cultural institutions when the new commune-level government apparatus comes into operation.

Accordingly, the guiding document has some main directions for the cultural and social departments under the People's Committees at the commune level on this content such as: guiding and inspecting the activities of cultural institutions; being able to make the most of existing cultural institutions to ensure that cultural centers are independent institutions with enough space to organize cultural and artistic activities... serving political tasks, providing public career services and entertainment activities for the people; researching and converting the functions of surplus headquarters after the merger into cultural institutions, especially in urban areas;...

In the context of restructuring the apparatus, many communes have flexibly utilized surplus communal cultural houses to serve various purposes, notably converting them into communal-level public administrative service centers. Typically, in Dong Dang commune, after the restructuring, the commune had four surplus cultural houses, so the People's Committee of the commune utilized part of the surplus communal cultural house as a point to receive and handle public administrative procedures. Thereby, helping people in villages far from the new commune center significantly reduce travel time and costs. Ms. Phung Thi Sen, a resident of Dong Dang commune, shared: "Previously, every time I had to do any paperwork or procedures, I had to travel more than ten kilometers to the district headquarters. Since the public administrative point was established at the cultural house, I only need to walk a short distance to get there. It is really convenient, saving a lot of time and effort."

In addition to converting the functions of redundant cultural houses, many localities also pay special attention to reviewing and re-evaluating the quality of existing cultural houses, especially those that do not meet new rural standards.

Ms. Pham Minh Hue, Chairman of Loi Bac Commune People's Committee, shared: The whole commune currently has 7/18 villages with standard cultural houses. For the standard cultural houses, we continue to promote their use. As for the unqualified cultural houses, we have a policy to continue reviewing and researching investment in construction to meet standards according to current regulations. Regarding the two old communal cultural houses, one near the center has been renovated by us, half to serve communal meetings, the other half is used as a public administrative service center; a further communal cultural house (8 km from the commune center) continues to be used for cultural activities, especially conferences and large meetings of the commune.

Not only Dong Dang and Loi Bac communes, many new communes in the province have had directions for handling surplus cultural houses such as: using them for public purposes such as healthcare, education or as public administrative service centers of new administrative units, community living spaces...

In the coming time, all levels and sectors in the province will continue to review, arrange and effectively convert the functions of redundant cultural houses, ensuring that each institution maximizes its use value, serving diverse needs of the community, thereby contributing to improving the spiritual life of the people in the context of the province's general development.

Source: https://baolangson.vn/phat-trien-thiet-che-van-hoa-cap-co-so-trong-boi-canh-moi-5052008.html