Progress of the project to merge provinces and remove district levels

On March 5, at the Government Headquarters, Politburo member and Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh chaired the regular Government meeting in February 2025.

The Prime Minister said that we are both performing and completing regular tasks; and focusing on continuing to reorganize the apparatus in the spirit of Resolution 18, preparing to reorganize the administrative boundaries of localities in the latest direction of the Politburo; promoting economic growth with the goal of reaching 8% or more in 2025; organizing major national holidays.

Stating large and urgent tasks, the Prime Minister requested firstly focusing on completing the project of reorganizing the boundaries of administrative units under the direction of the Politburo to submit to the competent authorities, in the direction of merging a number of provinces to expand the provincial boundaries in accordance with criteria, conditions, historical traditions, culture;

At the same time do not organize district level; reduce units to expand the scale of the commune level; At the same time, propose amendments, supplements and completion of related legal documents. In parallel with that, ministries, branches and agencies attached to the Government to strengthen the organization inside this week.

According to the tasks assigned by the Politburo and the Secretariat in Conclusion 127-KL/TW, the Government Party Committee is responsible for developing a project to merge a number of provincial-level administrative units, not district-level organizations, and continue to merge commune-level administrative units.

In particular, for the provincial level, in addition to the population size and area, it is necessary to carefully study the national master plan, regional planning, local planning, socio-economic development strategies, industry development, expansion of development space, promoting comparative advantages, meeting development requirements for each locality and the requirements and development orientation of the new period... as a basis and scientific basis in the arrangement.

For the commune level, it is necessary to clearly identify local government models for urban areas, rural areas, mountainous areas, plains, islands, population size, area, history, culture, socio-economic issues, national defense, security, ethnicity, religion... Building functions, tasks, powers, organizational structure, and boundaries of the local government at the commune level.

To ensure the implementation of assigned tasks, the Government Party Committee is assigned to urgently report to the Politburo for approval before seeking opinions from Party committees and organizations at all levels no later than March 9, 2025.

Receive the opinions of the Politburo and the Secretariat, complete the project to send to the provincial Party Committees, city Party Committees, and Party Committees directly under the Central Committee, agencies, organizations, and central Party Committees no later than March 12, 2025.

Receive comments from provincial Party committees, city Party committees, party committees directly under the Central Government, agencies, organizations, and central Party committees, complete the project, and report to the Politburo and the Secretariat before March 27, 2025.

After the above time, before 7.4.2025, the Government Party Committee received opinions of the Politburo, the Secretariat, the opinions of the agencies, completing the project and report; submit to the Party Central Executive Committee (via the Central Organizing Committee).