Focus on completing the merger of provincial administrative units before August 30, 2025

On the morning of March 18, at the Government Headquarters, speaking at the first meeting of the Government Steering Committee on science, technology, innovation, digital transformation and Project 06, Minister of Home Affairs Pham Thi Thanh Tra shared the results of administrative reform in 2024 and the first quarter of 2025, the completion of the merger of provincial-level administrative units...

Regarding institutional reform, Minister Pham Thi Thanh Tra said that the Government and the Prime Minister pay special attention to innovation in thinking in law-making, promoting the creative and supportive functions in addition to the management functions of the law and promoting decentralization and delegation of power. This is clearly demonstrated and we have achieved very positive initial results in 2024.

Regarding organizational reform, according to the Minister, this is truly a revolution in the entire political system. In recent times, our administrative system has achieved very positive results, creating a solid foundation for further development.

Regarding ministries and ministerial-level agencies, we now have only 17 ministries and ministerial-level agencies, having reduced 5 ministries and 3 agencies under the Government. At the same time, the internal organization of ministries and ministerial-level agencies has been significantly streamlined. Specifically, 13/13 general departments and equivalents have been reduced, reaching 100%; 519 departments and equivalents have been reduced (a reduction of about 77.6%); 219 departments and equivalents have been reduced (a reduction of 54.9%); 3,303 branches and equivalents have been reduced (a reduction of about 91.7%).

For localities, according to the general direction of the Government, 63 provinces and cities have reduced 343 specialized agencies and equivalents under the Provincial People's Committee, reaching a rate of 29%, along with 1,454 specialized agencies under the District People's Committee (a reduction of 17.5%). Along with that, the number of public service units of ministries, ministerial-level agencies, Government agencies as well as local authorities has decreased significantly.

Minister Pham Thi Thanh Tra also proposed tasks for administrative reform from now until the end of 2025. Notably, it is necessary to promote institutional reform to ensure the requirements of building and perfecting the legal system for creation, development and growth; timely decentralization and delegation of power to meet the requirements of "locality decides, locality acts, locality takes responsibility". Focus on removing institutional bottlenecks, focusing on institutions that are hindering growth; innovate thinking in law-making, while encouraging creativity, liberating all productive forces, and unlocking all resources for development. In particular, it is necessary to focus on implementing the arrangement of provincial-level administrative units, reorganizing commune-level administrative units and organizing two-level local governments to ensure caution, thoroughness, urgency and efficiency.

Minister of Home Affairs Pham Thi Thanh Tra said that we are focusing on arranging provincial-level administrative units, reorganizing commune-level administrative units and organizing two-level local governments, ensuring caution, thoroughness, urgency, efficiency and completing the entire arrangement of commune-level administrative units before June 20, so that by July 1, all commune-level administrative units operate under the new organization; focusing on completing the merger of provincial-level administrative units before August 30 to immediately implement the operation of provincial-level administrative units starting from September 1, 2025 and organizing two-level local governments. Currently, the process is being implemented very urgently with the goal and requirement of "running and queuing at the same time".

This is a requirement to respond to the general direction of the Politburo, the Central Executive Committee, the Government and the Prime Minister, and is an extremely important and urgent task.

NDO

Source: https://baohanam.com.vn/chinh-tri/tap-trung-hoan-thien-viec-sap-nhap-cac-don-vi-hanh-chinh-cap-tinh-truoc-30-8-2025-151582.html