Ministry of Defense gives opinions on local military organization when district level no longer exists

On the morning of March 20, the Ministry of National Defense held a conference to discuss and collect opinions on the plan to reorganize local military forces when abolishing district-level administrative units.

At the conference to collect opinions on local military organization when not organizing district-level administrative units, Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Van Nghia, Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Vietnam People's Army, presented a summary report on the project "Continuing to arrange local military organizations to be lean, compact, and strong to meet mission requirements in the new situation".

The conference discussed and gave opinions on the project; in which it analyzed in depth and clarified the local military organization model and issues on guidelines, policies and laws directly related to the construction and implementation of tasks of the local military system.

General Phan Van Giang, Minister of National Defense, said that inheriting the tradition and experience of building and performing the tasks of the Army through the periods, over the years, the Central Military Commission and the Ministry of National Defense have performed well the advisory function to the Party and State in the military and defense fields.

The Central Military Commission and the Ministry of National Defense resolutely carry out the building and adjustment of forces.

Up to now, the Army organization has been adjusted to be more streamlined, compact, and strong; the organizational structure between components and forces is synchronous, reasonable, and suitable to the nature of the tasks; intermediate organizations and military numbers have been reduced, and functions and tasks have been clarified.

IMG_D6F6621475EC 1.jpeg — General Phan Van Giang speaks at the conference. Photo: Manh Hung/Ministry of National Defense Portal

The Politburo and the Secretariat have proposed to report to the Central Committee for decision on adjusting the organizational structure of the political system and administrative boundaries throughout the country. This is a major and consistent policy of the Party and State to meet the requirements of building, protecting and developing the country in the new era.

Accordingly, the defense arrangement and military organization, focusing on local military organizations, need to be studied and adjusted appropriately to meet the task of strengthening national defense, protecting the Fatherland, and integrating with the overall development of the country.

On February 14, the Politburo and the Secretariat issued Conclusion No. 126 on a number of contents and tasks to continue to arrange and streamline the organization of the political system in 2025; including the orientation to eliminate intermediate-level administrative units.

The Politburo assigned the Central Military Commission to preside over and coordinate with the Central Organization Committee, the Government Party Committee, the National Assembly Party Committee, and relevant Party committees and organizations to study the orientation for further restructuring of the Army, including the organization of district-level military agencies, and propose to supplement and amend relevant Party policies and State laws to report to the Politburo in the third quarter.

On February 28, the Politburo and the Secretariat issued Conclusion No. 127 on the implementation of research and proposals to continue to reorganize the apparatus of the political system; clearly orienting the organization of local governments at two levels (provincial and communal levels). In particular, the Central Military Commission is required to implement the contents specified in Conclusion 126 and report to the Politburo and the Secretariat before March 27 according to the general progress of the whole country, the time is shortened by 1 quarter.

With a spirit of urgency, seriousness, science, caution, and certainty, the Central Military Commission Standing Committee and the Ministry of National Defense have proactively oriented and assigned tasks to agencies and units to research and propose plans for local military organization when reducing provincial and commune-level administrative units and abolishing the district level.

The Minister of National Defense emphasized that the research and proposal of local military organization plans must come from the practical tasks of protecting the Fatherland in the current situation; the strategic guidelines of the Party and State on military and national defense; inheriting the quintessence of military art, historical traditions of building military forces, fighting enemies to defend the country; practical wars and conflicts in the world and in the region...

After the conference, the Central Military Commission and the Ministry of National Defense continued to study and supplement the project's content and complete the report to the Government for submission to the Politburo. The Central Military Commission and the Ministry of National Defense noted the need to do a good job in propaganda, education, personnel work, and policies to ensure consensus and unity throughout the army.

Before April 1, report to the Central Government on the project to merge provinces and abolish district level.

The Central Steering Committee on summarizing the implementation of Resolution No. 18 requires the submission and project on reorganizing administrative units at all levels and building a 2-level local government organization model to be reported to the Central Government before April 1.

Any province name is fine, as long as the merger saves costs and develops.

Merging provinces and streamlining the apparatus is a correct direction to save budget resources and have more money for investment and development. As for the name, any name of the province is fine, as long as the merger saves costs and ensures factors for development.