"Compact" for "Efficient" and "Powerful"

The transition from 2024 to 2025 marks a significant milestone, with the merger of Dong Son district into Thanh Hoa City. Along with Thanh Hoa City, in accordance with Resolution No. 1238/NQ-UBTVQH15 of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly, localities in the province have also urgently implemented the merger of several commune-level administrative units that do not meet the standards regarding area and population size to establish new administrative units. After the merger, from January 1, 2025, Thanh Hoa province will have 26 district-level administrative units and 547 commune-level administrative units – a reduction of 1 district and 11 commune-level units.

Civil servants at the reception and results delivery department of Dong Hai Ward People's Committee, Thanh Hoa City, handle administrative procedures for citizens. Photo: To Phuong

In addition to merging administrative units, Thanh Hoa, along with the rest of the country, is currently urgently developing plans to streamline the number of departments, agencies, and units in accordance with the central government's directives, with the motto "The central government sets the example, the locality responds," and "running and queuing at the same time," with the provincial level not waiting for the district level, and the district level not waiting for the grassroots.

According to the guidelines for streamlining the organizational structure of the political system at the National Conference on the Implementation and Summary of Resolution No. 18-NQ/TW of the 12th Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam on December 1, 2024, after the merger and closure of some agencies, at least 4 Party agencies directly under the Central Committee, 25 Party committees, and 16 Party groups directly under the Central Committee will be reduced, while 2 Party committees directly under the Central Committee will be increased; at least 5 ministries and 2 agencies directly under the Government will be reduced; and at least 4 committees of the National Assembly will be reduced. From the vertical organizational restructuring, at the provincial level, the corresponding agencies will also be streamlined, merged, and closed.

General Secretary To Lam has repeatedly affirmed that continuing to innovate and reorganize the political system's apparatus is a very urgent requirement in the current practical situation, demanding the highest political determination, unity, courage, and even sacrifice from each cadre and Party member for the common good.

"Streamlining" aims to make the system "Efficient" and "Strong," ensuring it is truly "Effective," "Efficient," and "Profitable." This is because a system that has undergone numerous restructurings remains overly cumbersome, burdening the budget with excessive salary costs. A system with too many intermediate layers, overlapping functions and responsibilities, multiple points of contact, and numerous "channels" allows the "request-and-grant" mechanism to persist, hindering the resolution of bottlenecks and creating opportunities for waste, corruption, and negative practices to arise, thus impeding the country's development and progress.

There can be no further delay! Although this is an extremely difficult task, with many "problems" to solve: mechanisms and policies for officials and civil servants retiring early due to restructuring, resolving public assets after mergers and dissolutions of agencies and units, evaluating and selecting truly capable people to remain in the workforce, and preventing brain drain... But no matter how difficult it is, we will only discuss how to proceed, not retreat.

In his message to all cadres, Party members, and people from all walks of life, General Secretary To Lam expressed the determination of the leader and urged: “The 100th anniversary of our country under the Party's leadership and the 100th anniversary of the nation's founding is not far off. To achieve strategic goals, it requires not only extraordinary efforts and outstanding endeavors, but also does not allow us to be slow, lax, inaccurate, inconsistent, or lacking in coordination at every step; to do so, we need to urgently implement a revolution in streamlining the organizational structure of the political system...”.

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