Ho Chi Minh City streets at night - Illustration: NGOC TRAN
Ho Chi Minh City plans to reorganize from 273 to 102 units, including 78 wards and 24 communes. All new wards and communes are named with letters, with considerations from many factors of the land's history, familiarity with the people and cultural values...
From number names to all-letter names
Since the policy of abolishing district-level administrative units and rearranging commune-level administrative units into new ward-commune units (according to the 2-level local government model), districts, towns and Thu Duc City have proposed many options for rearrangement and continuously edited the names of new wards and communes to be appropriate.
Chairman of Go Vap District People's Committee Nguyen Tri Dung said that the proposal of new names for grassroots units aims to preserve traditional values. Otherwise, one or two generations will forget, no longer remember or know what the name Go Vap is, or where it originated.
All new wards and communes of Ho Chi Minh City are named after the letter
It is worth mentioning that many places previously proposed naming the wards in numerical order, but after receiving people's opinions, experts also adjusted to name the wards in letters appropriately.
For example, the plan in March 2025 of Thu Duc City proposed dividing the area into 9 wards, numbered from Thu Duc 1 to Thu Duc 9.
However, in the plan submitted in April 2025, Thu Duc City People's Committee proposed merging 34 wards into 12 wards with word names, of which many wards were renamed.
The familiar ward names of Hiep Binh, Tam Binh, Linh Xuan, Long Binh, Tang Nhon Phu, Long Phuoc, Long Truong, An Khanh, and Cat Lai were retained. In addition, the ward names of Thu Duc, Phuoc Long, and Binh Trung were newly given.
Similarly, at the end of March 2025, Binh Chanh district proposed to arrange the current 16 communes and towns into 4 communes with names from commune 1 to 4.
However, in the latest plan, Binh Chanh district proposed to arrange into 7 new communes with the names in words of Vinh Loc, Tan Vinh Loc, Binh Loi, Tan Kien, Binh Chanh, Hung Long and Binh Hung communes.
Saigon River - Illustration photo: TTD
Very reasonable, reasonable
Associate Professor, Dr. Ton Nu Quynh Tran believes that merging and changing ward names and choosing historical, traditional and cultural elements of the locality is very reasonable.
This expert cited the previous plan of District 5, which currently names the wards in sequential numbers. However, the current plan merges them into 3 wards: Cho Quan, An Dong, and Cho Lon. These are all typical names of the district.
Previously, this locality considered names such as An Dong, Dong Khanh, Ham Tu, but many opinions said that the names Dong Khanh and Ham Tu were not suitable, the latest name option is suitable.
Besides, localities such as Thu Duc and Cu Chi previously also had plans to name by ordinal numbers. We do not deny naming by numbers, but naming by letters after typical places would be more suitable.
For example, in Cu Chi, names like Thai My and Phu Hoa Dong are all names with many impressions.
However, this expert believes that we should not be too forced to name with historical elements because there are many ways to preserve historical names such as naming a square, it is not necessary to name a ward to preserve history.
Sociologist Dr. Le Minh Tien (Ho Chi Minh City Open University) said that it is necessary to acknowledge that in a short period of time, the district, county and department agencies in Ho Chi Minh City have tried their best to propose a basic naming system that carefully considers each element of cultural and historical value.
Each name of the new unit is associated with its history, the name of a place or land with many imprints and stories associated with that district. People who have lived in the districts for a long time or are interested in each land can easily recognize those names.
Many names were chosen from a large number of old ward and commune names to be the most prominent, the longest-standing in the subconscious, and the most easily recognizable to the people.
“In my opinion, in some districts, there are a few names that need further consideration to make them reasonable and suitable for many factors, but overall, the new naming system has many meanings and listens to the people's voices,” said Mr. Tien.
A familiar name makes up for the feeling of loss.
Mr. Tran Dat (resident of Tam Binh ward, Thu Duc city) shared that he was very happy when the opinion of many people that the new ward should not be named with soulless numbers but with letters was recognized.
According to Mr. Dat, when rearranging, many ward names and place names that have been associated with the people for a long time will certainly be lost, creating a feeling of loss for the people.
The deliberate naming of characters, keeping familiar names, somewhat compensates for this spiritual loss.
Mr. Le Van Ngoc (Go Vap District) shared that he found it reasonable that Go Vap District was arranged into 4 wards named Go Vap Ward, Thong Tay Hoi Ward, An Hoi Tay Ward and An Hoi Dong Ward. Of which, 3 names that seemed to be from the past were once again used to name the new wards in the district.
Today, April 18, the 10th Ho Chi Minh City People's Council held its 22nd session to discuss many important reports of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee.
That is the plan to rearrange administrative units at all levels and build a 2-level local government model, organizing the apparatus of specialized agencies under the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee.
At this session, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Council also considered abolishing Resolution No. 01 of the City People's Council on additional support for cadres, civil servants, public employees, and workers when implementing organizational restructuring.
In addition, consider and approve the list of works, land acquisition projects, projects that must change land use purposes, implement the Ho Chi Minh City Ring Road 4 project. Adjust and supplement the 2025 public investment plan, adjust and supplement the medium-term public investment plan for the period 2021 - 2025, decide on investment policies, decide on adjusting project investment policies.
In addition, the City People's Council will consider and approve policies to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Liberation of the South and National Reunification Day...
Source: https://tuoitre.vn/phuong-xa-moi-o-tp-hcm-can-nhac-gia-tri-van-hoa-lich-su-tung-ten-goi-20250418065315242.htm
Comment (0)