Merging provinces, abolishing district level: Strategic vision for the new era

Immediately after the whole country basically completed the arrangement and streamlining of Party committees, the apparatus of the National Assembly, the Government, the Vietnam Fatherland Front and socio-political organizations at the Central level, the political system rushed to "run and queue" in the process of arranging and reorganizing local administrative units.

Conclusion No. 126 of the Politburo and Secretariat on some contents of continuing to arrange and streamline the organizational apparatus of the political system in 2025, issued in the second half of February, clearly stated the requirements for studying the arrangement to eliminate intermediate administrative levels (district level); continuing to arrange commune level in accordance with the new organizational model; merging some provincial-level administrative units.

Immediately afterwards, the Politburo and the Secretariat continued to issue Conclusion No. 127 on implementing research and proposing to continue to reorganize the political system with the policy of merging provinces and communes and abolishing the district level.

For the provincial level, the Politburo and Secretariat believe that in addition to the basis of population size and area, it is necessary to carefully study the national master plan, regional planning, local planning, socio-economic development strategy, and sectoral development.

Another factor that needs to be taken into account is the expansion of development space, promotion of comparative advantages, meeting development requirements for each locality and the requirements and development orientation of the new stage... as a basis and scientific basis for arrangement.

The Politburo requested to complete this project before March 27 and receive comments to continue submitting it to the Central Committee before April 7.

The policy of rearranging administrative units at all levels was set forth in 2017, in Resolution 18 of the 12th Central Committee on a number of issues on continuing to innovate and rearrange the organization of the political system to be streamlined and operate effectively and efficiently.

Resolution 18 at that time clearly stated the task of "Step by step arranging, perfecting, and reorganizing district and commune-level administrative units that do not meet the standards prescribed by law; encouraging mergers and increasing the size of administrative units at all levels in places with sufficient conditions to improve management and operation capacity and strengthen local resources".

Next, Resolution 27 of the 13th Central Committee on continuing to build and perfect the Socialist rule of law State of Vietnam in the new period once again mentioned "continuing to arrange district and commune-level administrative units; piloting the arrangement of provincial-level administrative units in accordance with the overall planning of administrative units of the country and each locality".

To implement this policy, from 2017 to present, the whole country has carried out 2 rounds of administrative unit rearrangement at district and commune levels (2019-2021 and 2023-2025). As a result of the rearrangement, the number of district-level administrative units decreased from 713 to 696; the number of commune-level administrative units decreased from 11,162 to 10,035.

At the meeting in early March, Minister of Home Affairs Pham Thi Thanh Tra emphasized that the implementation of the content on administrative unit arrangement and building a local government organization model must ensure caution, thoroughness and quality.

The Minister emphasized that the Politburo's orientation in rearranging and reorganizing administrative units is to prepare for the country's development in the new era, with the goal of expanding space, creating development momentum, and ensuring the country's long-term stability.

"The administrative unit arrangement is not a short-term change that requires adjustment every few decades, but rather expands space for stable development over a hundred years, has a long-term strategic nature, and brings the country into a new era," said Minister Pham Thi Thanh Tra.

Chairing meetings of the Government Party Committee Standing Committee on the Project to rearrange and reorganize administrative units at all levels and build two-level local governments recently, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said that this is a policy that is supported and highly appreciated by the people.

This policy, according to him, is suitable for the new situation and current management capacity when traffic infrastructure and digital infrastructure conditions have been strongly improved.

In particular, the reorganization of administrative units at all levels will create new development space, maximizing the potential differences, outstanding opportunities, and competitive advantages of each locality.

The Government Party Committee also 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 present.

The Prime Minister requested that the arrangement of administrative units, in addition to criteria on natural area and population size, should consider criteria on history, tradition, culture, ethnicity, geographical conditions, level of socio-economic development, infrastructure, etc.

In particular, the naming of provincial-level administrative units must be inheritable, and the selection of administrative-political centers must consider historical, geographical, infrastructure connectivity, development space, defense, security and integration factors.

Analyzing with Dan Tri reporter about the policy, Associate Professor, Dr. Vu Van Phuc (Vice Chairman of the Scientific Council of Central Party Agencies, former Editor-in-Chief of Communist Magazine) commented that the arrangement of local administrative units and the organization of a 2-level local government model is a major, correct and accurate policy.

After 40 years of renovation, he said that our country has a new and higher position and strength; the staff at all levels, especially at the strategic level, is more mature, with enough qualities, capacity and qualifications to meet the requirements of leadership and management when merging some provincial-level units, not organizing at the district level, merging some commune-level units; implementing the 2-level local model.

"This model aims to ensure streamlining, efficiency, effectiveness and efficiency. This is an urgent requirement of the new development period, the country entering a new era, the era of national growth," said Mr. Phuc.

According to him, promoting the Fourth Industrial Revolution, drastically implementing digital transformation, developing the digital economy, digital society, etc. are important premises for merging some provinces, abolishing the district level, merging some communes and implementing the 2-level local model.

The arrangement of local administrative units aims to expand new development space, promote the advantages of each locality and be consistent with the development orientation of the new stage.

In particular, Mr. Phuc believes that this orientation not only helps the apparatus become less cumbersome and overlapping, but more importantly, helps the country have larger administrative units, less fragmented areas, expanded development space, and greater room for development.

Analyzing the advantages, Associate Professor, Dr. Vu Van Phuc said that after the merger, the province will create a development space as a region of the country, not divided by administrative boundaries as much as it is now. After receiving and implementing the Central's guidelines, policies, etc., the provincial Party organization will immediately deploy them to the grassroots Party organization, without having to go through an intermediate level as it is now.

According to Mr. Phuc, eliminating the intermediate level will help reduce the organization, staff, and civil servants at the district level, which means reducing the huge resources currently spent on the district level nationwide, and allocating these resources to strengthen the provincial and grassroots levels, with a part for investment in national development and investment in the people.

Emphasizing that the grassroots level is the level closest to the people, Mr. Phuc said that when merging provinces and abolishing the district level, it is necessary to increase investment in human resources, material resources, and financial resources at the grassroots level to better serve the people.

However, Mr. Phuc also pointed out some challenges if the provincial area is large, natural conditions are unfavorable, travel is complicated and difficult..., it will affect the leadership, direction, and timely grasp of the situation in all grassroots Party organizations in the whole province, easily leading to loosening of leadership and direction of the provincial Party organization towards the grassroots level.

Besides, for grassroots Party organizations in special and remote areas, if the qualifications of cadres are limited while the leadership and direction of provincial Party organizations are not regular, timely, and close, it can easily lead to a situation where leadership capacity and fighting strength are not guaranteed, and the Party's leadership is loosened.

Looking back at reality, Vietnam has gone through many times of separating and merging provincial-level administrative units.

In 1976, the country had 38 provinces and cities, by 1978 it increased to 39 provinces and cities, in 1979 it was 40, in 1989 there were 44 provinces and cities. In 1991, the number of provincial-level administrative units increased to 53, in 1997 it was 61, in 2003 it was 64 and from 2008 to present it is 63 provinces and cities.

But 2008 was perhaps a memorable milestone in the history of separation and merger of provincial administrative units, when the entire area and population of Ha Tay province were merged into Hanoi.

At that time, at the third session of the 12th National Assembly, the Government submitted to the National Assembly a Proposal on expanding the administrative boundaries of Hanoi city. The Government's priority plan was to merge the entire Ha Tay province, Me Linh district (Vinh Phuc province) and 4 communes of Dong Xuan, Tien Xuan, Yen Binh, Yen Trung (Luong Son district, Hoa Binh province) into Hanoi city.

This policy immediately created many different, even conflicting opinions. Many people were concerned that development investment resources would be spread out, lacking and weak when the capital's area expanded too much and the population was too large.

However, after the discussion process in the National Assembly, the Government's proposal achieved high consensus with 92.9% of the total number of National Assembly delegates voting to approve the Resolution on adjusting the administrative boundaries of Hanoi Capital. The Resolution took effect from August 1, 2008.

This is an important, historic decision that not only changes the face of Hanoi but also has a profound impact on neighboring areas.

Before the merger, Ha Tay was a province with an important strategic position but its economic development was limited and its infrastructure was not synchronized. The merger helped the locality increase its economic potential, attract investment and develop its infrastructure system.

With the important decision on expanding the administrative boundaries of Hanoi city, after 16 years, the socio-economic and appearance of the capital Hanoi has developed remarkably, especially in the areas merged into Hanoi. The infrastructure of the localities after merging into Hanoi has also developed strongly.

In 2008, Hanoi's GRDP per capita was only 28.1 million VND. By 2023, after 15 years of administrative boundary expansion, Hanoi's GRDP per capita had reached 151.1 million VND, about 5.38 times higher than in 2008.

Recalling that time, former Politburo member and former Secretary of Hanoi Pham Quang Nghi shared his overwhelming feeling at the time of merging Hanoi, Ha Tay, Me Linh district (Vinh Phuc province) and 4 communes of Luong Son district (Hoa Binh province), which was anxiety. He was worried because the workload was not only large but also very new and difficult, while the pressure of time to complete the work was very urgent.

Worrying about the decision to merge the apparatus is one thing, worrying about arranging cadres is ten. Mr. Nghi said that matters related to people, touching people's thoughts, feelings, rights and interests, are difficult.

The new apparatus, although better organized, will not be effective if the wrong people are assigned, according to the former Secretary of Hanoi.

Another concern he shared was that even if local officials were to merge, their working styles, qualifications, and experience would not be consistent and they would not be able to cooperate with each other, which would affect their work.

Psychologically, Mr. Nghi said that at that time, it was true that a part of Hanoi officials were worried and did not want to merge because they were afraid that sharing resources would lower Hanoi's development index.

And he, at that time as the head of the Party Committee, explained to the cadres that it was for the long-term development of the Capital and for the responsibility to the whole country. As the capital of a country of one hundred million people, Hanoi needed a larger area and space.

The merger is not just a matter of one-way support and sacrifice, but in return, Hanoi after the merger has better conditions for development.

Before the merger of Ha Tay into Hanoi, Mr. Nghi said that there had been times when 2-3 provinces were merged into one, but in general, it felt unsuccessful, leading to the story of "merging and then separating".

That reality caused anxiety when the policy of merging Hanoi and Ha Tay began to be implemented, because many people were worried that they would follow the same path of "merging and then separating". Moreover, Hanoi, as the capital of the whole country, if the situation after the merger was not stable, it would not only affect the economic and social development of the locality, but also the whole country. Therefore, at that time, the city's leaders were very worried.

To prepare well, Hanoi identified two important things to do in organizing implementation. One is to do a good job of ideological work, explaining and motivating appropriately and promptly, along with appropriate mechanisms and policies for cadres.

Second, the methods and approaches must be public, democratic, and fair to create consensus among staff.

Looking back at the overall picture of Hanoi today compared to 16 years ago, former Hanoi Party Secretary Pham Quang Nghi said he was very pleased that the National Assembly's resolution on expanding Hanoi's administrative boundaries has brought about many clear results.