After the 14th Party Congress, as Vietnam has just entered what is being called a “New Era,” accompanied by promises of national resurgence, the private business community has instead been hit with another administrative shock.
The Ministry of Public Security has officially issued Plan No. 12/KH-BCA, launching a nationwide campaign in 2026 to conduct sweeping inspections of enterprises, household businesses, and individuals across the country.
This move has triggered a wave of fierce outrage among entrepreneurs—people who are already bearing the consequences of an erratic governing mindset in which “what is right in the morning becomes wrong in the afternoon, and right again tomorrow.”
The most infuriating aspect is the timing. The Ministry of Public Security is deploying inspection teams right before Lunar New Year (Bính Ngọ)—a peak season for business—an act many view as inhumane.
While businesses are still struggling after the bottlenecks and disruption caused by Decree 46, the appearance of police forces at business premises feels like a “second blow,” pushing many to the brink of bankruptcy.
Observers have raised the question: if the goal is to support businesses, why not choose a different time? Or is this policy designed to make life difficult—forcing household businesses to “pay up” under the cynical logic: “If you don’t make things hard for them, where else would you get meat to eat?”
The contradiction between General Secretary Tô Lâm’s message of “easing the burden on the people” and the Ministry of Public Security’s harsh controls highlights a serious inconsistency in governance.
The fact that the government has just had to urgently suspend Decree 46 due to its glaring flaws has exposed a system of decision-making driven by willfulness—detached from the market and lacking accountability.
If the Ministry of Public Security does not abandon this citizen-harassing mindset and stop treating businesses like “cash cows” to be milked dry, then the price of “order and discipline” will be an exhausted economy and growing resentment throughout society.
Hong Linh – Thoibao.de
