Vietnam's all-powerful Politburo and the Party Central Committee's Secretariat assigned the Government’s Party Committee to coordinate with relevant agencies to study the merger of certain provincial-level units.

To streamline the political system by 2030, the Government’s Party Committee was also asked to study abolishing district-level administrative units and develop a plan for further rearranging the commune level in line with the new organizational model, proposing an organization structure, functions, duties, powers, and responsibilities of the commune level.

Vietnam currently has 63 provinces and cities, including 57 provinces and six centrally-governed cities. 

As of June 30, 2024, Vietnam has 705 district-level administrative units, including 523 suburban districts, 46 urban districts, 51 towns, 84 provincial cities, and one city under a centrally-governed city. 

There are 10,595 commune-level administrative units, consisting of 8,192 communes, 1,784 wards, and 619 towns, according to the Ministry of Home Affairs' report.

Pursuant to a resolution by the National Assembly Standing Committee, the standards for provincial-level units are based on population size, natural area, and the number of district-level administrative units. 

For mountainous and remote provinces, the population must be at least 900,000, with an area of over 8,000 square meters each. For provinces in other regions, the population must be 1.4 million people at the minimum, with an area of over 5,000 square meters each. 

A province must have at least nine district-level administrative units, including at least one city or one town.

For centrally-governed cities, the population must be at least one million, with a natural area of over 1,500 square meters each. 

The Politburo and the Secretariat also tasked the Government’s Party Committee with directing the Government Inspectorate’s Party Committee and related agencies to complete a plan to restructure the inspectorate system. 

Party organizations in state-owned corporations and banks will be shifted to party units of the localities where they operate. 

The Party Committee of the Ministry of Public Security will take responsibility for coordinating with other agencies and provincial and municipal party committees to restructure the police system into three levels, eliminating the district-level police.

District-level courts and procuracies are also expected to be abolished.

Results of these tasks will be reported to the Secretariat by the end of the second quarter.

Like us on Facebook or  follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!