The whole country is expected to have 5,000 communes and wards.

This information was announced by a representative of the Ministry of Home Affairs on the afternoon of April 1. The draft was completed to institutionalize the policy of the Politburo and the Secretariat and create a legal basis for the arrangement and reorganization of administrative units at all levels.

Ha Tinh city central square, March 2025.

Compared to the original draft, the criteria for arranging commune-level administrative units have been adjusted to suit the direction of superiors and the actual situation. Accordingly, the arrangement of administrative units at all levels will be based on criteria of natural area and population size. At the same time, the competent authorities will consider historical, traditional, cultural, and ethnic factors; geographical location and conditions; scale and level of socio-economic development; transport infrastructure, information technology; as well as ensuring national defense, security, and international integration.

The representative of the Ministry of Home Affairs emphasized that the arrangement of administrative units at all levels is not simply a matter of adjusting administrative boundaries and streamlining the apparatus, but also an adjustment of economic space, decentralization, allocation and combination of economic resources. The larger goal is to expand development space, create a foundation and momentum for the country according to long-term strategic goals and visions, in line with the reality and development trends of the world.

Two days ago in Da Nang, General Secretary To Lam said that in early April, the Central Committee will meet and calculate plans to streamline the apparatus. "It is initially expected that the whole country will have about 34 provinces and cities based on the rearrangement of the current 63 provinces and cities; ending the operation of district-level administrative units; merging about 5,000 commune-level administrative units," the General Secretary said.

The latest plan to merge communes and wards has changed significantly compared to the previous plan. Last week, the draft Resolution of the National Assembly Standing Committee proposed to rearrange 9,996 out of a total of 10,035 commune-level administrative units to reduce them to less than 3,000.

According to the draft dated March 23, communes and wards with an area or population below 300% of the standard will be merged. In the case of merging four or more units, this standard is not required. The goal is to reduce the number of commune-level units by 70-75%, creating the premise to reorganize local government according to the two-level model (province - commune), instead of the current three-level model (province - district - commune).

The merger of communes will be carried out on the principle of maintaining the status quo of existing administrative units and can merge communes of one district into communes of another district. Communes merged with communes will continue to be called communes, and communes merged with wards will continue to be called wards. Localities will proactively choose new names, but the Central Government encourages naming them after the district-level units before the arrangement, along with serial numbers to facilitate the process of digitizing and updating information data.

According to VnExpress

Source: https://baobacgiang.vn/ca-nuoc-du-kien-con-5-000-xa-phuong-postid415275.bbg