Proposal to dissolve district-level administrative units, 84 provincial cities will no longer exist

According to the latest draft of the Law on Local Government recently revised by the Ministry of Home Affairs and submitted to the Government, district-level governments, including 84 provincial cities, will cease to perform their duties, powers and cease operations from July 1.

Accordingly, the bill stipulates a two-level local government model including: provincial and communal levels, without organizing a district level.

In which, the provincial level remains as current regulations including: Province, centrally-run city. The communal level is reorganized into new communal-level administrative units including: Commune, ward and special zone (on islands).

Local governments at provincial and communal levels both organize People's Councils and People's Committees to ensure a unified government apparatus that operates smoothly from the central to communal levels.

To ensure that the operations of local governments when converting the government model from 3 levels to 2 levels are continuous, smooth, without interruption of work, without overlapping, duplication or omission of tasks, fields, and areas, without affecting the tasks of socio -economic development, normal activities of society, people, businesses, ensuring national defense, security, and social order and safety in the area, the draft law stipulates a number of notable contents.

In particular, the bill stipulates the dissolution of district-level administrative units and the termination of the operation of district-level local governments from July 1, 2025 (the effective date of the law).

At the same time, the bill stipulates the termination of the organization of the urban government model currently being implemented in Hanoi , Ho Chi Minh City, and Da Nang City and the transition in organizing local governments at the ward level in these three cities during the 2021-2026 term.

Binh Duong is one of two provinces with the most cities (5 cities). Photo: Nguyen Hue

The bill also stipulates 11 transitional contents to ensure continuous and normal operation of new agencies, organizations and units when converting the 3-level local government organization model into 2-level as prescribed in this law.

In particular, to promptly implement the organization of local governments at provincial and communal levels according to the new model, the Government is assigned to issue legal documents under its authority to redefine the tasks and powers of local governments and adjust other regulations related to the implementation of tasks and powers of local governments.

This is to unify the application during the period when laws and resolutions of the National Assembly, ordinances and resolutions of the National Assembly Standing Committee have not been amended or supplemented, and to periodically report to the National Assembly Standing Committee; in cases related to laws and resolutions of the National Assembly, it is to report to the National Assembly at the nearest session.

Tasks and powers of district-level local authorities transferred to commune level

The Ministry of Home Affairs also proposed amending regulations on promoting decentralization, delegation of powers, and tasks and powers of local authorities at provincial and commune levels.

Specifically, the provincial level focuses on promulgating mechanisms, policies, strategies, planning, macro-management, inter-regional and inter-commune issues that exceed the capacity of the commune level to resolve, requiring in-depth expertise and ensuring consistency across the province.

The commune level is the level of policy implementation (from the central and provincial levels), focusing on tasks serving the people, directly solving community problems, providing basic and essential public services to local people; tasks that require community participation, promoting the initiative and creativity of the commune level.

Specifically for provincial-level local authorities: To consistently implement the principle of "locality decides, locality acts, locality is responsible", in addition to the tasks and powers of provincial-level local authorities according to current regulations, the draft law has added a number of provisions to promote decentralization from the Central Government to provincial-level local authorities, especially in promulgating mechanisms, policies, planning, finance, budget, investment, etc. of localities.

For local authorities at the commune level, the draft law stipulates that local authorities at the commune level perform the tasks and powers of current local authorities at the district and commune levels.

Commune level is allowed to issue legal documents to decide on issues within the authority, scope and management tasks of local authorities at commune level.

At the same time, the draft law stipulates that based on practical situations, provincial-level local authorities are responsible for promoting decentralization and delegating their tasks and powers to commune-level local authorities for commune-level issues to be implemented more effectively and practically, ensuring effectiveness and efficiency in state management and promoting local socio-economic development.

In particular, provincial-level local authorities promote decentralization and authorization to local authorities at ward level to manage and develop urban areas and urban economy, and promote decentralization and authorization to local authorities in special zones to grant autonomy in deciding on issues to ensure independence, sovereignty, and national territorial integrity in sea and island areas, promote advantages and potential of marine economy, integrate into the international economy, and ensure attracting people to live, protect and develop islands.

The draft revised Law on Organization of Local Government will be considered by the National Assembly at its 9th session scheduled to open in early May.

Currently, the country has 696 district-level administrative units, including 84 provincial cities and 2 centrally-run cities.

Some cities in the province have a high level of urbanization, only have wards but no communes such as: Bac Ninh, Di An, Dong Ha, Soc Trang, Thu Dau Mot, Tu Son, Vinh Long...

Quang Ninh and Binh Duong are the two provinces with the most cities (5 cities).

Among the 84 provincial cities, there are some newly established cities such as Phu My (2025), Hoa Lu (2025), Dong Trieu (2024), Ben Cat (2024)... In addition, Thuy Nguyen city (under the central city of Hai Phong) was established on January 1, 2025.

On the contrary, there are many old cities with rich culture and history such as: Da Lat, Nam Dinh, Viet Tri, My Tho... Most of the cities under the remaining provinces were established in the period 2000-2020.

According to the proposal in this draft law, 696 district-level administrative units will be dissolved and cease operations from July 1, 2025. Thus, the current 84 provincial cities will also no longer exist.

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