National Assembly approved the merger of provinces and cities.
On the morning of June 12, the National Assembly will pass a resolution on the arrangement of provincial-level administrative units, reducing the number of provinces and cities from 63 to 34.
According to the Government’s proposal, 11 provinces and cities will maintain their current status, of which 10 localities meet the criteria: Hanoi, Hue City, Lai Chau, Dien Bien, Son La, Lang Son, Quang Ninh, Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Ha Tinh; Cao Bang alone has special factors. The remaining 52 provincial-level administrative units will be arranged into 23 new provinces and cities.
After the arrangement, the whole country will have 34 provincial-level administrative units, including 6 centrally-run cities and 28 provinces: Lai Chau, Dien Bien, Son La, Lang Son, Cao Bang, Tuyen Quang, Lao Cai, Thai Nguyen, Phu Tho, Bac Ninh, Hung Yen, Ninh Binh, Quang Ninh, Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Quang Tri, Quang Ngai, Gia Lai, Khanh Hoa, Lam Dong, Dak Lak, Dong Nai, Tay Ninh, Vinh Long, Dong Thap, Ca Mau and An Giang.
Since 1975, Vietnam has undergone many rounds of separation and merger of provincial administrative units. However, the merger in 2025 marks a special milestone – the country will have the fewest number of provinces and cities in nearly half a century.
Minister of Home Affairs Pham Thi Thanh Tra said that this restructuring of the state apparatus and administrative units is comprehensive, synchronous, thorough and groundbreaking. The Government is restructuring not only the territorial organization space but also the institutions, culture and economy for sustainable development.
She said the arrangement was carefully considered, multi-dimensionally, from natural area, population size to historical, cultural, ethnic, religious factors, development vision and social psychology. “The merger is not simply based on adjacent factors but is based on territorial morphology, especially the orientation towards the sea to form large economic centers,” she said.
The aim of the arrangement is to maximize the advantages of the marine economy, strengthen regional connectivity, especially between the South Central Coast and the Central Highlands, and at the same time form growth poles of national, regional and international scale.
The abolition of the district level and restructuring of the administrative system are entering the “sprint” phase, being implemented with a spirit of speed but still ensuring strictness, methodicalness and science. “The most valuable point is the very high consensus from the political system and all the people,” the Minister emphasized.
According to statistics, the total number of cadres, civil servants and public employees according to the staffing standards at provincial-level agencies, organizations and units in 52 localities subject to rearrangement is about 447,600. Currently, these localities have 38,182 provincial-level public offices; it is expected that about 34,000 offices will continue to be used and about 4,200 will be surplus.
The Government proposed that the resolution take effect from July 1, but the Committee on Law and Justice proposed that it take effect immediately upon the National Assembly’s vote. This is to create a legal basis for localities to promptly implement the handover and prepare necessary conditions so that the new government in the reorganized administrative unit can operate according to the Central Government’s plan.
In the morning of the same day, the National Assembly discussed in the hall the draft Law on amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Promulgation of Legal Documents. In the afternoon, delegates listened to the Report on the investment policy of the Ho Chi Minh City Ring Road 4 construction investment project and discussed the draft Resolution on the International Financial Center in Vietnam.
vnexpress.net/Son Ha
