Amending and supplementing the Constitution - a major policy for a new era of development

Amending and supplementing the Constitution - a major policy for a new era of development

In the sacred atmosphere of the historic April days, when the whole country is united in celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Liberation of the South and National Reunification, the National Assembly is urgently completing the final steps for the opening of the Ninth Session - a special session, which has historical significance for the development of the country in the new era. And, one of the most important tasks expected to be submitted to the National Assembly for consideration on the first working day of the Session is to amend and supplement a number of articles of the 2013 Constitution, in order to lay a solid legal foundation, opening up a new situation for the country's development with a strategic and long-term vision.

General Secretary To Lam gave a speech at the National Conference to disseminate and implement the Resolution of the 11th Central Conference, Session XIII. Photo: Lam Hien

“Streamlining the apparatus of the political system, merging provinces, not organizing district level, merging communes is not simply a matter of adjusting the organization of the apparatus and administrative boundaries but also a matter of adjusting the economic space, adjusting the division of labor, decentralization, and allocation of resources for development. It is an opportunity for us to screen, arrange, and build a team of cadres that truly meets the requirements of national development in the new period.”

General Secretary To Lam

Laying the foundation for unity in the entire legal system and organizational apparatus

Since the promulgation of the 2013 Constitution, the country has made important strides in institutional innovation, improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the administrative apparatus, strengthening discipline and ensuring the rights of the people. However, the constant movement of the practical situation is posing new requirements, requiring continued, stronger, more synchronous and profound innovation.

In particular, in the context that the entire political system is implementing the policy of rearranging administrative units, streamlining the apparatus, reorganizing local governments according to the 2-level model, building a streamlined government apparatus, shifting from passive management to proactively serving the people, creating development, and having the capacity to effectively organize and implement the Party's policies into practical life in the era of development and prosperity, amending the Constitution is a prerequisite, the first fundamental step to ensure unity in the entire legal system and state apparatus organization.

Implementing Conclusion No. 127-KL/TW dated February 28, 2025 on implementing research and proposing to continue to reorganize the apparatus of the political system and after the 11th Central Conference, Session XIII, the agencies of the National Assembly have focused on reviewing and working day and night to prepare for submitting to the National Assembly for consideration and amendment of a number of articles of the 2013 Constitution at the upcoming Ninth Session.

National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man speaks at the National Conference to disseminate and implement the Resolution of the 11th Central Conference, Session XIII. Photo: Lam Hien

The most important task of the 9th Session of the 15th National Assembly is to amend and supplement a number of articles of the 2013 Constitution, specifically amending 8 articles to serve the arrangement and streamlining of the political system and the organization of two-level local governments. The National Assembly will also consider and decide on the merger of provincial-level administrative units.

This is an unprecedented revolution to streamline the organizational apparatus, ensuring a strong, efficient, effective and efficient apparatus. Only by streamlining like this can we have more resources to invest in socio-economic development, resources to ensure national defense and security, and improve people's lives. From amending the Constitution, it will create conditions to carry out many things in the coming time."

Chairman of the National Assembly Tran Thanh Man

National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man stated that the scope of this amendment and supplement to the Constitution focuses on two groups of contents. Firstly , the provisions of the 2013 Constitution related to the Vietnam Fatherland Front and socio-political organizations (concentrated in Articles 9 and 10) to meet the requirements of streamlining the organizational apparatus, promoting the role, responsibility, and proactiveness of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, the role of gathering classes and strata, focusing on residential areas, close to the people, and to each household. Secondly , the provisions in Chapter IX of the 2013 Constitution to implement the model of organizing a two-level local government.

“Because the scope of this amendment and supplement to the Constitution is limited, expected to only involve about 8/120 articles of the 2013 Constitution, the National Assembly Standing Committee will submit to the National Assembly the form of a document as a Resolution of the National Assembly (similar to what was done in the amendments and supplements to the 1980 Constitution), the National Assembly Chairman said.

Although limited in scope, the upcoming amendment and supplement of a number of articles of the 2013 Constitution is of particular importance. According to the Central Government's direction, local governments will be reorganized according to a two-level model: provincial level (provinces, centrally-run cities) and communal level (communes, wards, and special zones under provinces and cities).

In there, The provincial level is both the level that implements policies from the central government and the level that issues policies in the province or city, and directly directs and manages the activities of the commune level in the area. The commune level mainly implements policies issued by the central government and the provincial level; is strengthened in decentralization and delegation of authority and has the authority to issue legal documents to decide on the organization of law enforcement in the area and decide on issues under its authority; the special zone (island) government is given more autonomy, ensuring flexibility and proactive response when sudden and unexpected events and situations occur in order to firmly protect the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country.

This is a very big and profound change not only in the organizational model of activities but above all, it will be a change in quality, efficiency and effectiveness of local government operations. As General Secretary To Lam pointed out: “ The local government after the arrangement must ensure streamlining, efficiency, closeness to the people, meeting the requirements of modern social governance, achieving the goals of rapid and sustainable growth; creating new positions and strengths for the task of ensuring national defense, security and foreign affairs; creating momentum and driving force for economic development, focusing on promoting the private economy; accelerating the development of science, technology and innovation; taking better and better care of the material and spiritual life of the people ”.

Paving the way for comprehensive, deep institutional reform

Looking back at the period of 2012 - 2013, when the National Assembly revised the Constitution, we can feel more deeply the revolutionary spirit of the above policy. There were proposals to implement a 2-level local government model that were put forward, discussed and debated at that time, but clearly they were not convincing enough.

Chapter IX of the 2013 Constitution, although recognized as a breakthrough in the organization of local government, basically maintains the 3-level local government model and "opens" it up in some provisions. Specifically: Clause 1, Article 111 stipulates that "Local government is organized in administrative units of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam" and Clause 2, Article 111 stipulates that "Local government levels include People's Councils and People's Committees organized in accordance with the characteristics of rural areas, urban areas, islands, and special administrative-economic units as prescribed by law".

National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man speaks at the National Conference to disseminate and implement the Resolution of the 11th Central Conference, Session XIII.

The above regulations have the meaning of "paving the way" for the National Assembly to issue many resolutions over the next 10 years allowing for the pilot implementation and then the official implementation of not organizing People's Councils of districts, wards and urban governments in some localities. However, these reforms are not thorough.

It seems that local government organizations are still "struggling" with the traditional, cumbersome, inflexible and almost "uniform" model throughout the country (except for some localities that implement other models according to the National Assembly's resolution). In the era of the 4.0 Industrial Revolution, the limitations of the 3-level local government model have become more evident, especially the cumbersome organizational structure, staffing, overlapping authority and responsibility, leading to the effectiveness and efficiency of state management not meeting practical requirements.

Thus, it can be seen that amending and supplementing a number of articles of the 2013 Constitution, especially the regulations for organizing a two-level government, will create a breakthrough change in many aspects, creating a great driving force for reform and development of the country in the long-term vision.

In terms of institutions, National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man said that agencies and organizations, according to their scope of authority and areas of responsibility, have reviewed and compiled a list of legal documents affected by the amendment and supplementation of the Constitution. Specifically, according to the Government's Report, there are about 19,220 documents issued by the Central and local levels with content directly affected by the implementation of the policy of continuing to reorganize the apparatus of the political system, including 1,180 documents from the Central level and 18,040 from localities.

The National Assembly will amend and supplement laws directly related to the organization, basic rights and interests of people, organizations, enterprises, and local authorities, and directly impact socio-economic development, national defense, security, in the fields of budget, investment, and planning.

Implementing the request of the Central Committee and General Secretary To Lam, on the basis of the two-level local government model, central and local agencies are also urgently reviewing and promulgating mechanisms, policies, strategies, plans, and inter-regional and inter-base issues, ensuring consistency nationwide and in each locality.

Thus, in general, amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Constitution will lay the foundation for carrying out a comprehensive and extensive reform in the entire system, in which, as National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man emphasized, it is necessary to "pay special attention to promoting decentralization and delegation of power in the spirit of "locality decides, locality does, locality is responsible", clearly defining the authority between the Central and local levels, between the provincial and communal levels, clearly defining which tasks of the district-level government need to be transferred to the communal-level government or assigned to the provincial-level government to facilitate the locality in the implementation process" .

In order to fulfill the requirement to complete the amendment of the Constitution and related laws and resolutions before June 30, 2025 and take effect from July 1, 2025, in its role as the body exercising constitutional rights, the National Assembly has "initiated" the process of reviewing and amending a number of articles of the 2013 Constitution with the highest sense of responsibility.

The National Assembly session was convened 15 days earlier than usual. And on the very first day of the session, scheduled to open on May 5, the National Assembly will hear a report on the amendments and supplements to a number of articles of the 2013 Constitution, so that the following day (May 6) it can conduct a 1-month public consultation (expected to be until June 5, 2025)... After that, the agencies will have 5 days to synthesize and receive public opinions to submit to the National Assembly for consideration and approval of a resolution on the amendment of the Constitution.

One of the requirements repeatedly emphasized by the National Assembly Chairman is to attach special importance to collecting public opinions on constitutional amendments; the Government, together with the Vietnam Fatherland Front, must conduct them scientifically, democratically, practically, publicly, transparently, and pay attention to collecting community opinions according to the Law on Implementing Democracy at the Grassroots Level... This not only shows a very high political determination but also deeply demonstrates the National Assembly's sense of responsibility in exercising its constitutional rights.

It can be seen that the amendment and supplementation of a number of articles of the 2013 Constitution this time is both urgent and expected to open up "room" for extensive reform to move towards a streamlined, honest, strong, efficient, effective, and modern administration capable of leading the country to develop quickly, strongly, and sustainably in the new era.

Once again, Vietnam's constitutional history continues to face a crucial moment, requiring high consensus and the decisive and creative participation of the entire political system and the entire people under the unified leadership of our Party.

Quynh Chi

Source: https://daibieunhandan.vn/sua-doi-bo-sung-hien-phap-quyet-sach-lon-cho-ky-nguyen-phat-trien-moi-post411862.html