Foundation for Hanoi to break through in the new era
Breakthroughs in decentralization and delegation of power, associated with empowering initiative and encouraging creativity, will create a solid foundation for the Capital to break through in the new era.
Strong shift from "administrative management" thinking to "development creation
Resolution No. 02-NQ/TW dated March 17, 2026 of the Politburo on building and developing Hanoi Capital in the new era has elevated the goal of developing the Capital with a 100-year long-term vision, orienting Hanoi Capital not only to be the national political - administrative center, the heart of the country but also to become a global city, belonging to the group of capitals with the highest quality of life and happiness index in the world by 2065. The orientation for building and developing the Capital in Resolution No. 02-NQ/TW has set out the requirement to have new approaches in building the provisions of the revised Capital Law, different from the current Capital Law.
Along with that, Resolution No. 66-NQ/TW dated April 30, 2025 of the Politburo on innovating the work of building and implementing laws to meet the requirements of national development in the new era has set out the requirement to innovate management thinking, strengthen decentralization and delegation of power to the maximum in the direction of "localities decide, localities do, localities take responsibility", reducing unreasonable administrative procedures, in accordance with the actual situation in Hanoi City.
According to Nguyen Quoc Hoan, Director of the Department of Legal Document Development (Ministry of Justice), based on the above grounds, the development of the draft Capital Law (amended) according to new approaches is an objective and necessary requirement, in line with the Party's guidelines and policies, close to the development reality of the Capital and meeting the development requirements of the country in the new period.
The draft Law shows a strong shift from the thinking of "administrative management" to "development creation", considering institutional improvement as a "breakthrough of breakthroughs" to unlock resources. This is also a consistent direction, playing a guiding role in the process of building the revised Capital Law according to a new approach" - Mr. Nguyen Quoc Hoan analyzed.
The revised Capital Law is built with the following new approaches: Changing the role of the Capital from "policy implementation" to "policy design"; The Law only stipulates framework issues, principled issues; thoroughly and comprehensively delegating power to the city government associated with accountability; establishing breakthrough, innovative, and creative legal spaces.
The Draft Capital Law has been built with a new approach, expressed through framework regulations, which are principled. For example, regarding the organizational structure and staffing, the Draft Law does not rigidly stipulate the number of agencies or staffing targets, but establishes a framework authority for the City People's Council to proactively decide, ensuring flexibility and practical suitability.
Regarding the authority to issue legal normative documents, the Draft Law does not stipulate specific procedures, but empowers the Capital Government to issue documents detailing and guiding implementation, thereby affirming the role of "legal framework", creating room for the city to proactively design policies.
Regarding the application of law, the Draft allows the City People's Council to choose to apply preferential and more favorable policies from legal normative documents issued after the Law takes effect. This regulation is principled, helping to ensure flexibility, limiting the need to regularly amend and supplement the Law.
The draft Law is built in the direction of promoting decentralization of power to the city government, without detailing the order and procedures. "Based on the draft Law submitted to the National Assembly, 192 powers are assigned to the Hanoi City government (of which the People's Council exercises 124 powers, the People's Committee exercises 56 powers and the Chairman of the People's Committee exercises 12 powers)" - Mr. Nguyen Quoc Hoan informed.
Creating a long-term institutional foundation, helping Hanoi promote its leading role
According to Deputy Director of Hanoi Department of Justice Nguyen Cong Anh, the revised Capital Law Project stipulates that Hanoi should only develop a single master plan, replacing current types of plans. The city is given the power to proactively decide on the list and roadmap for relocating production facilities and workplaces that do not comply with the plan (except for headquarters of central agencies). The draft Law introduces policies to manage and exploit underground space, low-lying space and high-lying space to serve economic development, science and technology, innovation and digital transformation.
Regarding urban and housing development, the city has the authority to flexibly switch between types of commercial housing, social housing and housing for resettlement to meet practical needs and social security goals.
Regarding the development of transport infrastructure, transportation, logistics and environmental protection, the city is issued specific mechanisms and policies on mobilizing resources for investment in development, management and exploitation of synchronous and modern transport infrastructure; prioritizing the development of large-volume public passenger transport, limiting personal vehicles, applying measures to reduce congestion and emissions; promoting the development of logistics systems, regional connection and application of high technology in traffic management.
The city is issued mechanisms and policies to protect the environment, including identifying and applying low emission zones; supporting the development of green transportation, converting vehicles using clean energy; relocating polluting production facilities; promoting waste reduction, recycling and circular economy development.
The city is regulated on measures to ensure social order and safety, environmental protection and urgent administrative measures; regulations on authority, penalty titles and unified management in the field of food safety and urban order to effectively solve "bottleneck points" in this field;
The city is regulated to have higher administrative violation penalties but not more than twice the general level according to the Government's regulations for corresponding violations in 9 fields (inherited as in the Capital Law No. 39/2024/QH15). The city is regulated to stop providing electricity and water services to violating works and establishments.
The amendment of the Capital Law is not only aimed at removing short-term bottlenecks but also creating a long-term institutional foundation, helping Hanoi promote its leading role, leading national development in the new era" - Deputy Director of Hanoi Department of Justice Nguyen Cong Anh emphasized.
Agreeing with the decentralization orientation in the draft revised Capital Law
On the afternoon of April 8, at the first session of the 16th National Assembly, after listening to the Government's report, National Assembly deputies listened to the thẩm tra report on the draft Capital Law (amended).
Presenting the thẩm tra report, Chairman of the National Assembly's Law and Justice Committee Phan Chi Hieu said that the Law and Justice Committee agreed with the necessity of comprehensively amending the Capital Law in 2024. "The amendment aims to build a special, superior and stable institution, capable of effectively solving the problems of the Capital, thereby creating a competitive advantage and promoting Hanoi's rapid and sustainable development in the new period" - Mr. Phan Chi Hieu said.
The Law and Justice Committee believes that the draft Law dossier has been carefully prepared, fully documented according to regulations, and is eligible for submission to the National Assembly for consideration and decision according to simplified procedures. The content of the draft Law has basically fully institutionalized the Party's major guidelines and orientations on building, developing and protecting the Capital, in accordance with the 2013 Constitution (amended and supplemented in 2025) and relevant international treaties.
The Law and Justice Committee highly agreed with the orientation of decentralizing power to Hanoi City in areas as proposed by the Government in order to promote its proactive role in designing and organizing policy implementation, in accordance with development requirements in the new period.
* The draft revised Capital Law has designed a separate chapter on development resources, which establishes many innovative financial and budgetary solutions, creating a clear legal framework and expanding financial space for Hanoi to maximize its potential and advantages.
Deputy Director of Hanoi Department of Finance Le Trung Hieu said that this mechanism will create greater financial space, help the city proactively invest in infrastructure, digital transformation, improve the living environment, and at the same time, create strong motivation for revenue management, anti-revenue loss, expand the tax base, and nurture sustainable revenue sources.
* According to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thanh Chuong - Secretary of the Party Committee of the University of Transport and Communications, the draft revised Capital Law is a step to clearly concretize the goals and orientations of the Resolution of the 18th City Party Congress, term 2025-2030. The city applies flexible forms of recruitment and use of talents; many mechanisms and policies are proposed to attract high-quality human resources at home and abroad; create favorable conditions for Vietnamese experts and intellectuals abroad to work in the Capital; and at the same time improve policies for the domestic labor force.
To develop the economy based on science and technology sustainably, in addition to human resources policies, it is necessary to pay more attention to technology transfer mechanisms and human resource development. Clearly identifying major problems and key programs of the Capital will be the basis for attracting talented teams to participate, thereby creating practical solutions, associated with development needs" - Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thanh Chuong emphasized. LE TRANG
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