Merge provinces, remove district level to form an elite apparatus!

On February 28, 2025, the Politburo and the Secretariat issued Conclusion No. 127-KL/TW, orienting the merger of some provincial-level units, not organizing at the district level, and merging some commune-level units. This is part of the effort to streamline the organization of the political system, to ensure efficiency and effectiveness.

"This policy is very correct and necessary, receiving high consensus from the central to the grassroots levels, in line with the new situation and objective inevitable trends," Mr. Pham Van Hieu, Standing Deputy Secretary of the City Party Committee, Chairman of the People's Council of Can Tho City, emphasized when talking to Dan Tri reporter .

According to Mr. Pham Van Hieu, this is a particularly important task, a revolution in streamlining the organization of the political system. This arrangement is not only a matter of scale or quantity, but more deeply, it must create a qualitative change in the operation of the political system.

Streamlining the organizational apparatus goes hand in hand with streamlining the payroll and restructuring the staff to have the qualities and abilities to match the tasks. More than ever, the staff and party members must uphold the spirit of responsibility, be pioneers, and set an example in performing their tasks in the spirit of putting the common interest above all, for the common goal.

"Recently, the Standing Committee of the City Party Committee has directed to temporarily suspend the organization of party congresses at the commune and district levels for the 2025-2030 term to facilitate the process of rearranging and streamlining the organizational apparatus according to Conclusion No. 127-KL/TW of the Politburo and the Secretariat," said Mr. Hieu.

Sharing about the separation of provincial units, Mr. Pham Van Hieu said that most recently in the Mekong Delta region, Can Tho City is directly under the central government and Hau Giang province was separated from the old Can Tho province.

After 20 years of separation, the city has strived to achieve many important and quite comprehensive results in all areas such as: The economy maintains a fairly high growth rate; mobilizing social resources for investment in infrastructure construction is increasing; trade and services are developing diversely; many key transport infrastructure projects are built,...

However, Can Tho City also faces limitations, shortcomings and difficulties.

According to Mr. Hieu, one of the issues that the city's leaders have always been concerned about over the years is that although development has improved, it has not been groundbreaking and has not been commensurate with its potential and inherent advantages. The city's core, centrality and driving force for the development of the Mekong Delta region is not clear, and its contribution to the region's GRDP is still low.

"Some of the bottlenecks include limited urban planning, lack of strategic vision, and lack of sustainability; limited road traffic connecting the city to the provinces in the region; lack of clean land to implement projects using large land areas; lack of large-scale warehouse and logistics systems to serve large-scale freight transport needs; lack of high-quality human resources;...

From there, it also has a certain impact on the production and business activities of enterprises, as well as calling for investment in the city," Mr. Hieu pointed out.

Can Tho City has a strategic location, located in the center of the Mekong Delta, is the gateway to the lower Mekong River, plays a very important role in politics, economy - society, national defense - security, an important traffic hub in regional and international transportation, has many opportunities, advantages and favorable conditions for expansion and development.

With the policy of merging a number of provincial-level units, according to the Standing Deputy Secretary of the Can Tho City Party Committee, to create favorable conditions and opportunities for further breakthroughs in development in the coming time, in addition to the criteria of a locality, a centrally-run city, Can Tho needs to have suitable development space, especially enough space for urban development (including central urban areas and satellite urban areas), enough land fund to promote investment development, especially strong development of socio-economic infrastructure, transportation; strongly attract investment in developing trade, services, industry, logistics, etc.

Mr. Tran Van Huyen, Chairman of Hau Giang Provincial People's Committee, also affirmed that the arrangement and consolidation of the administrative apparatus is a major policy of strategic significance, demonstrating the consistency, decisiveness, determination and resolve of our Party and State and is an inevitable requirement in the development process of the country, aiming to streamline the apparatus, improve the effectiveness and efficiency of operations, and meet the requirements of socio-economic development in the new situation.

"In which, we will study the merger of some provincial administrative units, not organize at district level, and merge some communes. This is also an important task that requires careful preparation, ensuring feasibility and effectiveness," Mr. Huyen shared.

From the perspective of an elected representative, Mr. Nguyen Huy Thai, Deputy Head of the National Assembly Delegation of Bac Lieu province, also emphasized that Conclusion 127 with the goal of streamlining the apparatus and improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the political system is a specific policy, continuing to create breakthroughs, creating a premise for our country to enter a new era.

When the administrative apparatus is streamlined, decision-making and policy implementation will be quick and effective, promptly responding to the general development pace of society and the economy, and having a more direct and positive impact on people and businesses.

"Thus, merging some provincial-level administrative units, not organizing at the district level and merging commune-level units will help improve management efficiency, in line with the current general development trend," the National Assembly delegate from Bac Lieu province emphasized and assessed that this is being implemented very urgently and responsibly.

Expressing his views on merging administrative units, Dr. Duong The Hien, Deputy Head of the Department of History, An Giang University (Ho Chi Minh City National University), said that the problem of merging is not about adding mechanical area but the problem is about connecting values in the administrative space, as well as making the relationship between the government apparatus and the people closer.

According to Mr. Hien, the 4-level government model has revealed certain limitations that the Party has pointed out. Therefore, there is a need for reform and change, and the 3-level model (central, provincial, communal) is the direction we will build in the coming time.

"Government here is no longer a tangible definition but the form of an elite apparatus with 3 levels: Central government; provincial government; grassroots government," said Dr. Hien.

For these three levels, we still ensure centralized democracy, one of the Party's operating principles up to now, that is, all policies are focused on the people through State agencies.

The merger does not change this principle, people benefit, no longer have to go through the complicated and cumbersome process as before, promoting people's right to mastery.

Deputy Head of the National Assembly Delegation of Bac Lieu Province Nguyen Huy Thai said that after implementing "merging provinces, removing districts, and merging communes", it is estimated that hundreds of thousands of billions of VND can be saved each year. With this figure, it is completely permissible to think that the not-so-small source of funding will be reinvested more reasonably for social security.

According to Mr. Nguyen Huy Thai, the Mekong Delta is facing urgent problems such as rising sea levels, drought, saltwater intrusion, subsidence, landslides, environmental pollution, soil nutrient depletion, etc. Meanwhile, in some localities, people are leaving farming, leaving their hometowns to work elsewhere, leaving behind a workforce that is aging day by day.

The biggest concern in our Mekong Delta region now is to develop and improve cultural and educational levels, etc. That is the launching pad for any region or locality.

"Raise awareness of officials, civil servants and people; focus resources to solve urgent problems of the region; advocate developing a green, clean, circular and sustainable economy; the delta ecosystem associated with cultural tourism products is a unique strength; develop transport infrastructure, digital economy, develop driving projects; ensure the real effectiveness of regional linkages; promote the strengths of each sub-region", Mr. Thai suggested the priority direction when arranging administrative units.

After more than 7 years of implementing Resolution No. 18-NQ/TW of the 12th Central Executive Committee on innovation and reorganization of the political system, a number of important results have been achieved, initially creating positive changes in innovation and reorganization of the apparatus, improving the operational efficiency of agencies, units and organizations in the political system.

However, Standing Deputy Secretary of the Can Tho City Party Committee Pham Van Hieu said that the organizational apparatus still has many layers and intermediate levels, reducing the responsiveness and initiative of the government at all levels, the effectiveness of state management and social management is not as expected; people and businesses spend a lot of time carrying out administrative procedures, causing obstacles and missing development opportunities; the operating costs of the organizational apparatus system are large, reducing resources for investment and development.

According to Mr. Hieu, the study of not organizing at the district level is an inevitable objective trend, a strong breakthrough; reducing intermediate levels will overcome the above limitations and bottlenecks, reducing costs for the administrative apparatus at the district level; policies, administrative procedures will be implemented drastically, uniformly, synchronously, and quickly from the provincial level to directly at the commune level, reducing overlap and stagnation in the apparatus, enhancing the proactiveness, efficiency, and creativity in performing public duties at the commune level, creating an open investment environment, opening up more space to attract potential and resources for development.

Besides, in the context that our country is applying advanced and modern achievements of digital transformation, digital economy, digital society, digital citizenship,... effectively in practice.

After the Politburo issued Resolution No. 57-NQ/TW on breakthroughs in science, technology, innovation and national digital transformation, the implementation of the 2-level local model (province and commune) is a very favorable condition, strengthening authority, further promoting the self-reliance, autonomy and self-reliance of the local level.

According to Mr. Tran Van Huyen, Chairman of Hau Giang Provincial People's Committee, after abolishing the district level, the commune level will become the administrative level closest to the people, playing a very important role in implementing state management tasks and providing public services to the people. Therefore, improving the administrative capacity of commune-level authorities will be very important.

In the process of reorganizing the apparatus, it is necessary to select cadres and civil servants with moral qualities and qualifications to meet the requirements of the task to arrange into the new apparatus.

In order for the new commune-level apparatus to operate effectively, efficiently and effectively, priority should be given to issues such as: There needs to be a training and fostering policy to improve professional qualifications, skills and management skills; ensuring adequate and modern facilities and working equipment to meet work requirements in the new situation; decentralizing and delegating powers clearly and specifically to the commune level to ensure proactiveness and flexibility in performing tasks; creating conditions for people to participate in the process of formulating and implementing policies and decisions of commune-level authorities in the process of managing and developing the local economy and society.

According to Nguyen Huy Thai, Deputy Head of the National Assembly Delegation of Bac Lieu Province, the absence of the district level as an intermediary will reduce the situation of "overlapping responsibilities" for closer supervision and easier assignment of responsibilities (because there are areas that are managed by the district, provincial and commune levels, making it difficult to determine the roles and responsibilities of each level of government).

One of the issues raised is how to arrange the number of cadres, civil servants and public employees at the district level (after this level is abolished) to be most convenient for both the province and the commune. Mr. Nguyen Huy Thai said that it is very necessary to build a system of criteria to select a number of specific groups of subjects.

According to him, in addition to qualities and ethics, personnel with high professional qualifications and management experience should be assigned to work at the provincial level to enhance their capacity to direct, manage and implement policies in a large area.

For the group of subjects who have professional qualifications and management experience, but are at a lower level and understand the local and regional realities, additional work should be arranged at the grassroots level.

For some other groups of people, according to Mr. Nguyen Huy Thai, it is necessary to have appropriate policies to be able to voluntarily retire early and some other appropriate related policies, which do not exclude the policy of streamlining the number according to the time roadmap.

"It is necessary to apply truly appropriate policies to ensure the rights of this group of people," the National Assembly delegate from Bac Lieu province proposed.