If a country wants to grow, its development space must be large.

Merging provinces, abolishing district level, and expanding commune level government is very necessary. This is also to serve the people and the new will certainly be better than the old...

Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Thuong Lang - Senior Lecturer, Institute of International Trade and Economics, National Economics University - had an interview with reporters of Industry and Trade Newspaper about this issue.

Create more room for growth

-Sir, after Conclusion No. 127-KL/TW dated February 28, 2025 of the Politburo, the Standing Committee of the Government Party Committee held 2 meetings to give opinions on the Project on rearranging and reorganizing administrative units at all levels and building 2-level local governments. The Steering Committee for implementing the Project has also been officially established and has had its first meetings. It is expected that after the rearrangement, the whole country will have only about 30 provinces and about 2,000 communes. What is your opinion on this?

Mr. Nguyen Thuong Lang: The story of merging or separating provinces in Vietnam is not a new issue. Previously, we also had provinces such as Binh Tri Thien, Nghe Tinh, Hoang Lien Son, Quang Nam - Da Nang. Or the provinces of Ninh Binh, Ha Nam, Nam Dinh today were separated from the former Ha Nam Ninh province. After such times of merging and separating provinces, with this merger, we will have a lot of experience in implementation.

Bac Kan is a province that does not meet all three minimum standards on area, population, and number of district-level units.

I think that if a country wants to grow, its development space must be large and its administrative space must also be large. Currently, we are in a flat world, with digital technology platforms, online platforms, online information, VNeID, cyberspace, etc., which will help to handle administrative management issues quickly and effectively.

In fact, in some countries, a province is even larger than the country of Vietnam and can still be managed. Therefore, we cannot let a province be too small.... If we keep the old administrative management mechanism, the management apparatus will be very cumbersome, unable to move quickly because the apparatus is "too heavy", requiring opinions from many intermediate levels and levels. Therefore, in the current conditions, if we want to move quickly, we must definitely streamline. There needs to be a great revolution in streamlining the local management apparatus.

Here, I think, we only change the management of the administrative apparatus, reduce the apparatus, reduce the intermediary steps that waste people's time and money. This is also to serve the people. This is the time we really need and should boldly do it.

The new is definitely better than the old.

- Merging provinces, abolishing district level, and expanding commune level government are necessary. To make this implementation effective, what recommendations do you have?

Mr. Nguyen Thuong Lang: I think that when the Politburo and the Secretariat issued the policy, they certainly had certain plans and researched and re-researched a lot.

Currently, we also have many favorable factors for implementation. Among them, we must mention the application of advanced and modern achievements of the fourth industrial revolution, digital transformation, digital economic development, digital society, digital citizenship... which are being deployed strongly, drastically and effectively in practice. This will be an important premise for our country to merge provinces, abolish the district level, expand the commune level; implement the 2-level local model; and not affect the cause of national development and national defense.

It is also through this digital technology that we will measure the changes in economic development conditions, people's living conditions, business development, transportation systems, etc. of the provinces after the merger and to see that the new will be better than the old and specifically how better.

Economist, Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Thuong Lang. Photo: NH

Some opinions are concerned that the process of merging provinces, eliminating district levels and expanding commune levels may create certain social security disruptions. However, these issues will also be resolved by digital technology.

For example, with administrative procedures, I think that using cyberspace is the way for us to build a paperless strategy. We need to encourage large corporations to participate in providing this service.

Standard forms of documents need to be created in advance and when needed, just fill in the information. Any state agency that issues these documents will do it for the people because this information is fully recorded in the books of the authorities, thus, minimizing disruptions in social security.

Don't miss the range, leave the 'battlefield' empty

-According to the plan, the plan to merge provinces, abolish the district level, and expand the commune-level government will be submitted to the Party Central Committee before April 7, 2025, that is, just over a month from the time the Politburo issued Conclusion 127.... According to you, how should the roadmap be implemented in this spirit?

Mr. Nguyen Thuong Lang: Since March 1, 2025, the Government apparatus after the arrangement, streamlining and consolidation of ministries has come into operation. The organizational structure of the Government includes 14 ministries and 3 ministerial-level agencies. The fact that the ministries have come into operation as planned, ensuring continuity in state management has clearly demonstrated the spirit of "The Party has directed, the Government has agreed, the National Assembly has agreed, the people have supported, the Fatherland has expected, then only discuss and do, not discuss backtracking".

In the reform of streamlining the apparatus at the local level, specifically here is the merger of provinces, abolishing the district level and expanding the commune level, I believe that with a scientific, optimal approach and a clear roadmap, along with the highest determination, we will certainly succeed.

This merger, I think, is mainly related to administrative procedures and paperwork. For a long time, we have been working on paper, but now we have switched to doing it online. Besides, we also have population data, real estate documents are also in the state books. The job now is to solve the backlog, unprocessed parts, this volume is not too much, only about 15-20%.

Here, we are merging provinces together, we already have boundary markers. Of course, in this transitional step, we must appoint leaders to do this scientifically.

Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Hoa Binh chaired the first meeting of the Steering Committee for the implementation of the arrangement and reorganization of administrative units at all levels and the development of a two-level local government organization model. Photo: VGP/Dinh Hai

Recently, the Prime Minister signed Decision No. 571/QD-TTg dated March 12, 2025 to establish a Steering Committee to implement the arrangement and reorganization of administrative units at all levels and build a 2-level local government organization model.

At the first meeting of the Steering Committee held on the afternoon of March 13, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Hoa Binh also emphasized that the process of rearranging and reorganizing administrative units at all levels and building a 2-level local government model must be implemented firmly and in compliance with legal regulations.

Accordingly, the direction and management activities as well as public services for the people must not be broken or interrupted. Emphasizing that although the Steering Committee only exists for a few months, we must work hard and with high quality, the Deputy Prime Minister also requested ministries and branches to fulfill their functions and tasks well.

Another issue that many people are interested in is the criteria for merging provinces. I think that only provinces that are adjacent to each other can be merged together. This is suitable in terms of geographical conditions, terrain, etc.

It is not true that strong provinces will merge with weak provinces to support each other. Because this is not a policy to develop all provinces equally, but a policy for all provinces to develop together. Provinces that have developed will continue to develop, and for provinces that have not developed, we will have a development model for those provinces. Equal development among provinces is very difficult and in my opinion, impossible.

Merging provinces also needs to be considered economically so that economic space can be expanded, such as space for infrastructure development, airports, etc., needs to be considered strategically to be suitable.

With the construction of a scientific roadmap and a unified approach, the implementation and deployment of the Project on rearranging and reorganizing administrative units at all levels and building a two-level local government will certainly be successful and highly effective. We must do something that we have never done before to be different. If we want to develop, we need to go fast, we cannot go slowly forever.

Along with the reorganization of the administrative apparatus, the local government has 2 levels. I think that we must expand the decentralization mechanism and delegate power to local governments in the direction of local decision, local action, local discussion, and local responsibility.

In streamlining this apparatus, when removing a certain level (district level), there will have to be another level to carry out the work of this level, this is a very normal thing. This is part of the management model, if this level is removed, there must be another level to manage the work, we do not let the scope be missed, leaving the 'battlefield' empty...

We expand the commune level, but the new commune must be better than the old commune, more efficient and more creative. I think that when we set such a requirement, we will get it done and must do it. Of course, this is just an expectation. But the reality requires us to build backup and reserve plans.

We must accelerate in implementation and be decisive in execution to be able to make great strides and breakthroughs. If we just wait and wait, there will never be any change.

Thank you!

At the second meeting of the Government Party Committee Standing Committee on continuing to give opinions on the Project on rearranging and reorganizing administrative units at all levels and building a 2-level local government, which took place on the afternoon of March 11, delegates agreed to submit to competent authorities a plan that after the rearrangement, the number of provincial-level administrative units will be reduced by about 50% and the number of grassroots-level administrative units will be reduced by about 60-70% compared to the present.

At the first meeting of the Steering Committee for the implementation of the arrangement and reorganization of administrative units at all levels and the construction of a 2-level local government model held on the afternoon of March 13, talking about the reorganization of commune-level administrative units, Minister of Home Affairs Pham Thi Thanh Tra - Deputy Head of the Steering Committee - said that, currently there are 10,035 units, the scale will be reorganized to only about 2,000, "almost like a small district".

In the Project to rearrange and reorganize administrative units at all levels and build a two-level local government, the Government submitted that about 1/3 of the district's tasks would be transferred to the province, and 2/3 would be transferred to the commune - to the grassroots level. Next week, the Politburo plans to collect opinions from all party organizations, ministries, branches, and localities.

Source: https://congthuong.vn/sap-nhap-tinh-dat-nuoc-muon-vuon-minh-khong-gian-phat-trien-phai-lon-378407.html