Considerations in choosing an administrative center after the merger

In the merger of provinces, choosing an administrative center located in an area with strong economic vitality, a place that can create development momentum for the entire province; or a place that facilitates people with a modern, convenient, and friendly administrative space are the issues being raised.

According to Dr. Nguyen Viet Chuc - Deputy Head of the Advisory Council on Culture and Society, Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, choosing an administrative center needs to avoid waste.

Reporter: Sir, in the arrangement of provincial administrative units, there are many opinions on where to place the administrative center. But the important thing is where to place it to truly be worthy of being a modern and convenient administrative space for the new province. What is your opinion?

Dr. Nguyen Viet Chuc: There are currently many different opinions, each opinion has its own reason. However, in my opinion, the administrative center must be chosen from a place that has previously been the administrative center of a province. Firstly, that place has existed for decades, even hundreds of years. In terms of facilities and material, it is quite adequate. For example, Phu Tho province chose Viet Tri as its administrative center, and Vinh Phuc province chose Vinh Yen. When choosing the center of the province, they considered many factors and reasons. Now, merging 2 or 3 provinces into 1 province, it is reasonable for us to choose one of those centers as the administrative center of the new province.

There are also opinions that the administrative center of the new province after the merger must be a major center of economy, culture, national defense, security, and even foreign affairs in the context of the country's international integration, so a new administrative center can be built. What do you think about this issue?

In my opinion, we should not choose and build a new place as an administrative center because it will be costly. The place chosen as the administrative center must be worthy and develop as the administrative center of a new, larger province after the merger.

In particular, the leaders of the new province after the merger must unite and respect the culture of the former province. After the merger, the old province may no longer have that name, but the culture is still there and has not been lost. Therefore, we must respect the culture of that place, even be more tactful and respectful so that the people there will not be hurt.

I also think that merging provinces is also a challenge to end the situation of “localism”. After all, Vietnam is one, the Vietnamese people are one, we are united in diversity. Therefore, the administrative center of the new province must be a place that was previously a center; a place that was already a city or town, the “town” element has been established for decades, even centuries. If choosing a new administrative center that can be rich in agriculture and rural areas but makes the people there have to adapt to “urban” life, it is a counterproductive move.

Now urbanization is increasingly strong but the administrative center must be an urban area attached to the urban area.

Choosing an administrative center should be convenient for people. Photo: MH

Sir, the administrative center must be a place that facilitates the people. Choosing one of the administrative centers of the old province to be the administrative center of the new province can lead to "convenience in this place" but "disadvantage" in that place?

It is never possible to reconcile all the factors. For example, let me give a simple example of a couple from two different hometowns, close to the paternal side and far from the maternal side and vice versa. Now, should we split them in two and put the administrative center in the middle? Therefore, as I mentioned, we should choose one of the previous administrative centers to become the administrative center of the new province after the merger.

Through merging and streamlining the apparatus, we also have the opportunity to select officials with the right level of new thinking. How can we develop if we keep thinking locally? The country now needs to be united and work together. When merging 2-3 provinces into 1 province, the new province after the arrangement must develop. Those with local thinking need to be eliminated early to select officials with a new and greater thinking.

This is a revolution that requires synchronous thinking, new thinking, looking out to the ocean for development, not mergers like before. Since it is a revolution, it will be difficult, but everyone must contribute to make it better. And in my opinion, after the merger, remote areas must be given more attention.

Not only choosing the administrative center after the province merger, we also rearrange the commune level. With 4-5 communes merged, the "commune-level administrative center" also needs to be recalculated because this is the level that solves the problems closely related to the people, don't you think?

We are in the 4.0 industrial revolution, we must apply science and technology, digital transformation, and digitization to our activities. It is not a matter of where it is near. Because if it is near one person, it is far from another and cannot meet all the needs. Now at the commune level, the headquarters are quite spacious, from the party committee, committee, cultural house, and gymnasium. So we must know how to take advantage of what we have, because building a new center is very expensive, and the country is still very poor. From now on, the commune level will be like "a small district", so the leadership level must also be different, not the same as before.

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