Special Urban Law for Ho Chi Minh City: Focus on substantive decentralization.

On the morning of May 8th, the Standing Committee of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Council, in collaboration with the Ho Chi Minh City University of Law, organized a scientific seminar titled "Law on Special Urban Areas - an Institutional Breakthrough for Ho Chi Minh City".

The Standing Committee of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Council, in collaboration with the Ho Chi Minh City University of Law, organized a scientific seminar titled "Law on Special Urban Areas - An Institutional Breakthrough for Ho Chi Minh City". Photo: LE THOA

Ho Chi Minh City, a megacity, needs more conditions to develop.

Nguyen Manh Cuong, alternate member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City, acknowledged that the Law on Special Urban Areas is of significant importance to the development of Ho Chi Minh City in the current context.

The Standing Committee of the City Party Committee has established an editorial team and a steering committee to draft a new Resolution to replace Resolution 31 and the Law on Special Urban Areas, in order to report to the central authorities as soon as possible.

Ho Chi Minh City is focusing on developing the Law on Special Urban Areas under significant pressure. "That pressure stems from the expectations of the Party Committee, the government, the people of the city, and the Party and State leaders for a stronger and more suitable legal framework for development," Mr. Nguyen Manh Cuong shared.

luat-do-thi-dac-biet-tphcm 5.jpg — Nguyen Manh Cuong, alternate member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City, shared his views at the seminar. Photo: LE THOA

The Vice Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee emphasized that the city is aware of its mission and will make maximum efforts and coordinate to the highest degree with relevant agencies to meet the city's development requirements in the coming period. After the administrative unit reorganization, Ho Chi Minh City needs more suitable conditions to maximize its potential and advantages and maintain its leading role in socio-economic development.

In the context of increasingly fierce competition, the demand for shifting and transforming the growth model, digital transformation, and green transformation based on science and technology and innovation also poses many requirements and challenges that the city must face and solve, paving the way for stronger development in the future.

“The Law on Special Urban Areas will define many requirements and conditions for the city to establish a unified, synchronized, and superior legal framework, clearly defining the city's development model as a megacity, a leading unit in socio-economic development; increasing decentralization and delegation of power from the city government to the grassroots level. This will unlock, mobilize, and effectively utilize resources and authority,” Mr. Nguyen Manh Cuong shared.

Completely remove institutional barriers without having to 'ask' for permission.

Dr. Nguyen Thi Thien Tri, from the Ho Chi Minh City University of Law, believes that the Law on Special Cities should be a general law for all special cities, using Ho Chi Minh City as a benchmark, and could even be applied to Hanoi if its design follows a more advantageous model.

According to the regulations of the National Assembly Standing Committee, there are only two special urban areas: Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. With that in mind, Dr. Tri believes that the practical experience of Ho Chi Minh City should be used as a benchmark to establish a standard legal framework. That is, from the core needs and bottlenecks, a philosophy should be formed for building a Law on Special Urban Areas to address and meet the needs and aspirations of the city.

"This law is concise and, importantly, it must be a mechanism law," said Dr. Tri, arguing that all problems in special urban areas will be solved, not through specific regulations, but through mechanisms.

Regarding the principle of delineating authority, Dr. Tri said that it is necessary to combine both top-down and bottom-up models of delegation of authority to ensure a substantive direction of delegation through a rational delegation technique.

luat-do-thi-dac-biet-tphcm 4.jpg — Dr. Nguyen Thi Thien Tri speaks at the meeting. Photo: LE THOA

This model will maintain the current traditional centralized decentralization model for certain key areas where the central government holds decision-making power, such as macroeconomic fiscal policy, national security and defense, foreign affairs, human rights, legal proceedings, or, particularly in Vietnam, land issues.

At the same time, it is necessary to determine which issues in the city belong to the local area, and which are local issues that are not related to or significantly affect the national or macro level, so that the bottom-up decentralization mechanism can be applied. Specifically, only the decentralization model from the National Assembly should be applied, not the decentralization model from the Government and ministries or ministerial-level agencies.

"This will thoroughly address institutional bottlenecks and barriers, and there will be no fear of new situations arising where localities have to request additional funding," said Dr. Tri.

Dr. Nguyen Thi Thien Tri also proposed a mechanism for immunity from liability and control over urban governments to create reassurance from the central government and the people, ensuring that strong decentralization does not lead to abuse of power; while simultaneously promoting the genuine initiative and creativity of urban governments.

In particular, it emphasizes the courage to think outside the box and take action. According to Dr. Tri, urban areas are different from rural areas, requiring the government to constantly be in a state of proposing groundbreaking solutions and challenges.

“Current laws also provide many exemptions, but they are not extensive enough and do not adequately facilitate the freeing up of human resources. We need to develop more specific exemption mechanisms for urban governments,” Dr. Tri stated. Dr. Tri also emphasized the need to establish strong control mechanisms for urban governments. She argued that the traditional model involves pre-approval regulations, meaning the central government provides proactive legal mechanisms, and local authorities follow suit.

She proposed replacing this mechanism with a post-audit mechanism, reducing proactive regulations, and empowering local authorities. At the same time, she emphasized the importance of supervision, inspection, auditing, and improving the mechanism for citizen oversight.

Delegation of authority follows responsibility.

According to Mr. Nguyen Thanh Tu, Deputy Minister of Justice, the task of developing a Special Urban Law for Ho Chi Minh City is "urgent, difficult, and stressful," especially given the very short preparation time. He noted that Ho Chi Minh City has many unique issues, and designing a specific mechanism for the city is already very complex.

luat-do-thi-dac-biet-tphcm 2.jpg — Ho Chi Minh City leaders and experts attend the workshop. Photo: LE THOA

The Deputy Minister of Justice emphasized that Ho Chi Minh City needs to adhere closely to the conclusions of the General Secretary and the President, with the spirit of "the whole country for Ho Chi Minh City, Ho Chi Minh City for the whole country," thereby clearly defining the name and scope of the law as being specifically for Ho Chi Minh City.

According to the Deputy Minister, the main direction of the law has been set by the Central Committee with six key areas of focus: breakthroughs in governance and decentralization; concretizing the Central Committee's strategic resolutions; reforming planning; mobilizing resources for infrastructure development; strengthening regional linkages; and addressing urban bottlenecks such as traffic, flooding, and environmental pollution.

Therefore, Ho Chi Minh City needs to focus on mechanisms and policies to address these six groups of issues, creating a breakthrough in development.

Regarding planning, the Deputy Minister noted that Ho Chi Minh City needs to approach it using a master plan model with a 100-year vision, instead of separating city planning and urban planning as is currently the case.

The city also needs to expand its development space through regional linkages because its current area is not large enough for a megacity. However, he also noted that the law must clearly define the limits and not encroach upon areas such as national defense, security, foreign affairs, and religion.

The Deputy Minister of Justice also stated that the biggest focus of the law must be the decentralization and substantive empowerment of Ho Chi Minh City. He particularly emphasized granting more power to the Ho Chi Minh City People's Council to issue legal documents to proactively handle issues arising in the locality.

"Decentralization should follow responsibility, and it should follow a mechanism," he clarified. However, decentralization also needs limitations, similar to the Law on the Capital City.

He also clearly distinguished between the "sandbox" mechanism and "policy testing." Accordingly, the sandbox only applies to specific projects or cases, while policy testing empowers the People's Council to issue normative legal resolutions to test new mechanisms.

The Deputy Minister of Justice also stated that regional linkages are a key factor for Ho Chi Minh City to expand its development space. Ho Chi Minh City could study the model of a regional council to coordinate linked projects, while also allowing inter-regional projects to benefit from the special mechanisms of this law.

According to the Deputy Minister, Ho Chi Minh City needs to identify its unique characteristics to create breakthroughs, and marine economy and the development of marine and island spaces are areas with great potential. "The framework for decentralization is a general condition, but to create rapid change, there must be specific tasks that can be implemented immediately to promote socio-economic development," he said.

He also shared experiences from the process of drafting the Capital City Law, showing that it is necessary to implement three aspects simultaneously: the political foundation, the legal basis, and long-term development planning.

At the same time, Ho Chi Minh City must closely coordinate with ministries, agencies, and experts to develop specific, practical regulations instead of just academic aspirations or ideas.

"Developing a Law on Special Urban Areas for Ho Chi Minh City is not just a matter for the city alone, but a common task for the whole country," the Deputy Minister said, affirming that the Ministry of Justice and other ministries and agencies will work alongside Ho Chi Minh City in the process of drafting the bill.

Source: https://ttbc-hcm.gov.vn/luat-do-thi-dac-biet-cho-tp-hcm-trong-tam-la-phan-quyen-thuc-chat-1021281.html