"With the regular and drastic direction of the Central Committee, the Politburo , the Secretariat, the National Assembly, the Government, and the timely coordination, guidance, and support of the Central Committees, Ministries, and branches, the united efforts of the entire political system, the consensus and support of all classes of people and the business community, Ho Chi Minh City has overcome "all difficult beginnings" to continue to affirm its leading role in the development of the region and the whole country," emphasized Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Council Vo Van Minh in his opening speech at the 2nd session of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Council.
Ho Chi Minh City has just gone through a month since the time of implementing the merger of provinces and cities, organizing the 2-level local government model. In front of the people and voters of the city, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Council Vo Van Minh said that the past period was a busy time of work, but also full of joy, excitement, determination and expectations for the bright future of the city and the country.
With an area 3.25 times larger than before, a population of approximately 15 million people after the merger, Ho Chi Minh City is gradually realizing its aspiration to become a modern, multifunctional megacity, playing the role of a major economic - financial, service - commercial, industrial - logistics, seaport, and tourism center of the country and the region. Becoming a growth pole of the whole country, a breakthrough locomotive in the new period is also the goal to respond to the trust and expectations of the Central Government and people across the country that have been placed in the city named after Uncle Ho.
In an interview with Dan Tri, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Council Vo Van Minh shared about the time when the team of cadres, civil servants and public employees raced against time to ensure the merger of provinces and cities, and the operation of the 2-level local government model took place smoothly and conveniently, without interrupting the service to the people and businesses.
The leader of the City People's Council also informed about the major orientations that the locality needs to focus on in the coming time and gave his perspective on the outline of a national megacity with international influence in the future.
“I envision a megacity of Ho Chi Minh City with a strong, seamless and unified investment in the intra-regional and inter-regional transport system to maximize its resources. The new Ho Chi Minh City will develop strongly based on the industrial strengths of Binh Duong, the seaport strengths of Ba Ria - Vung Tau in the past and resonate with the financial center resources and high-quality human resources of Ho Chi Minh City before the merger,” said Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Council Vo Van Minh.
At the recent 2nd session of the HCMC People's Council, you said the city has overcome the "all beginnings are difficult" period. Could you share more about the overall progress of the organization and operation of the two-level local government from the perspective of the new head of the City People's Council?
- One day after General Secretary To Lam announced the policy of merging provinces and cities and organizing a two-level local government model, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Council held its first meeting on the afternoon of July 1 to carry out personnel work and reorganize the apparatus. The tasks carried out at the first meeting included: establishing departments under the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, the Office of the National Assembly Delegation and the City People's Council, and completing key personnel of the People's Council's committees so that the entire political apparatus can be put into operation immediately.
Since then, under the direction of the Standing Committee of the City Party Committee, survey teams of the Standing Committee of the City Party Committee, People's Council, People's Committee, and Vietnam Fatherland Front have been assigned to go to 168 wards, communes, and special zones to work and survey the situation. We have found that the grassroots apparatus has basically operated smoothly despite certain difficulties and problems in the initial stage.
The difficulties and problems have been compiled into a report by the HCMC People's Council for the HCMC People's Committee to consider and promptly resolve.
The 2nd session of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Council, which took place on July 24, continued to address issues related to organizational structure, including completing the functions and tasks of the Department of Food Safety; perfecting the leadership personnel of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee; and carrying out regular mid-year tasks such as assessing the socio-economic situation in the first 6 months of the year and setting out directions for the last 6 months of the year.
In addition, the city recalculates the budget regulation rate and revenue sources for all levels; and regular expenditure norms for commune and city-level agencies. Previously, 3 localities applied 3 different levels, but now it needs to be recalculated for consistency.
Some other specific issues have also been resolved, such as: unifying the list of public services in education to ensure consistency in the new school year; policies to support redundant staff such as district-level Red Cross teams and urban order collaborators; supporting businesses to renovate old, degraded apartments...
Based on the leadership of the Standing Committee of the City Party Committee, Ho Chi Minh City set a growth target of 8.5%, along with a series of guiding solutions. Typically, the groups of issues proposed by the Standing Deputy Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee Nguyen Thanh Nghi at the meeting were concretized by the City People's Council according to its authority for leadership and supervision, and the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee also deployed them into specific tasks.
Currently, how much of the work has the City People's Council completed to move towards the goal of completing the entire operation of the new government model, and what is the next work, sir?
- It is difficult to quantify specifically how much of the work the city has completed. Just considering a specific area for a specific committee of the HCMC People's Council such as the Committee for Culture and Society, after review, the committee has about 43 groups of resolutions that have not been agreed upon between the previous 3 localities and need to continue to review and adjust to suit the current context.
The workload of other committees under the HCMC People's Council is even greater.
From now until the end of the year, the HCMC People’s Council still has a lot of work related to institutional and legal development under its authority to be done. The general spirit is “working while running and lining up”.
One of the major tasks is that the People's Council has directed the committees to review all resolutions in the field of examination to identify the resolutions that are still different between the three old localities, thereby urgently unifying them.
It is expected that in August, the HCMC People's Council will convene a thematic session to develop legal policies within its authority. In particular, the city will prioritize the fields of health, education, social security, especially issues that have a direct impact on the people such as: policies for redundant cadres and civil servants, civil servants who have to work far away; arranging accommodation and means of transportation to ensure work requirements.
Looking back at the process of merging provinces and cities and organizing a two-level local government model, can you share about the biggest difficulty you have experienced, completed and left a deep impression on?
- In fact, the most stressful time with the largest workload that I felt was the initial stage of the merger, after the Central Government had a policy to shorten the implementation time. Initially, the time for merging provinces and cities was expected to be implemented in September, then the time was shortened, speeding up the progress to implement from the beginning of July.
This is an unprecedented event, so the cadres are very worried and have to work at full capacity to prepare for the organization, staff arrangement, material conditions, especially to resolve the remaining and unfinished work from the old localities. Those efforts are all aimed at the common goal of promptly handling all work, avoiding interruptions, affecting the progress of key projects and major tasks.
During that period, in the old Binh Duong province, officials in departments, branches and localities worked at double or triple the normal intensity. In the end, all tasks were handed over smoothly, the new apparatus has been operating smoothly since the first day of organizing the new model until now.
It is not true to say that there are no problems or difficulties in the implementation process. When changing the organizational model and the way of operating, which entails rearranging people, jobs, functions, tasks and organizational structure, it certainly requires preparation time.
However, in recent times, Ho Chi Minh City has directed and implemented very strongly. The Ho Chi Minh City People's Council has also reorganized the apparatus, issued regulations on functions, tasks, and clear assignment. Departments, branches, and communes have also done the same. For public service units, the initial phase may have been a bit slow, but now they have gradually gotten into the groove.
The entire political system from the city to the commune level has caught up with work and is operating stably. Through surveys in localities, we have recorded people's satisfaction when coming to resolve administrative records and procedures. The grassroots apparatus is very enthusiastic, excited and ready for work.
As someone with deep knowledge of the Southeast region and someone who plays an important role in building the institutions of Ho Chi Minh City, what policies will you prioritize and promote so that the new city can develop strongly and tap into existing resources?
- In my opinion, the first priority is to review and unify the resolutions and policies of the People's Councils of the three old localities, which still have differences. Especially policies related to the people, such as social security, health care, and education, need to be given priority to be considered and reviewed to ensure they are suitable for the new situation.
Ho Chi Minh City currently has Resolution 98 on piloting a number of specific mechanisms and policies. In fact, many contents of Resolution 98 have been legalized and replicated nationwide. Recently, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Council reported on the monitoring of the implementation of Resolution 98, clearly stating the difficulties, obstacles, achievements and recommendations for further improvement.
National Highway 13, the main traffic route connecting Ho Chi Minh City and Binh Duong areas in the past.
In the coming time, the city needs to focus on implementing the current Resolution 98 well and effectively, and at the same time propose to develop more policies and resolutions of a larger scale, beyond the current scope to suit the development requirements of a megacity like the new Ho Chi Minh City.
If Resolution 98 has reached its limit, the city needs to continue to expand its institutions. This is also the desire of the city's leaders. Only when the barriers in mechanisms and policies are removed will Ho Chi Minh City have favorable conditions to create an important foundation and make a breakthrough in the coming period.
The Central Government has assigned the task to the new Ho Chi Minh City to achieve double-digit growth in the coming time. In particular, implementing special mechanisms and building outstanding institutions are among the especially important solutions and premises.
According to you, among the areas prioritized by Ho Chi Minh City in recent times, which is the highest priority for the People's Council to focus on monitoring and developing policies, in order to soon create changes for the new city?
- In my opinion, the issue of transport infrastructure is the key point that needs to be changed soon. The backbone transport system of the new Ho Chi Minh City includes: expressways, urban railways, freight railways and river and maritime ports. In reality, the transport system of the 3 provinces and cities in the past was not synchronized and had many shortcomings.
When traffic is good, cadres, civil servants and public employees can go to work in the morning and return home in the afternoon conveniently, without spending too much time on traffic jams, especially for those who have to travel from the old Binh Duong and Ba Ria - Vung Tau to the new center of Ho Chi Minh City.
The urban railway system and metro lines also play an important role in completing the transportation system of Ho Chi Minh City after the merger. Recently, the Government approved the project to extend Metro Line 1 from Suoi Tien to Binh Duong, the next issue is to continue extending this metro line to Long Thanh airport, and through the Ba Ria - Vung Tau area.
Next is the environmental issue. Currently, if we consider each locality before the merger, Ba Ria - Vung Tau and Binh Duong can be said to be relatively stable in terms of environmental protection. Binh Duong has an automatic wastewater monitoring system in industrial zones, and is in the top 5 localities with green environmental index in the country, despite the strong development of industry.
Before the merger, Ho Chi Minh City had few industrial parks, but the urban environment and urban wastewater treatment were major challenges. The rate of urban wastewater treated in the area was still low, requiring a huge amount of funding and could not be resolved in a short time.
Therefore, the city needs to focus on investing heavily in wastewater treatment infrastructure, while continuing to strictly control discharge sources.
The current policy of Ho Chi Minh City is not to expand industrial development outside of planned industrial zones and clusters for easy control. At the same time, the city is also gradually tightening emission standards, moving towards controlling emissions from personal vehicles, in order to harmonize the requirements of environmental protection and attracting investment for development.
Metro lines play an important role in completing the transportation system of Ho Chi Minh City after the merger.
As the new Chairman of the City People's Council, what do you expect from the image of the megacity of Ho Chi Minh City in the coming time?
- General Secretary To Lam, in a working session with Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong, and Ba Ria - Vung Tau before the merger, said that the three localities after the merger are not simply additions but must aim for a larger goal.
I believe that, with the available advantages, Binh Duong has industrial strength, Ho Chi Minh City is the financial and human resource center, Ba Ria - Vung Tau is the industrial center associated with seaports... then after the merger, Ho Chi Minh City will develop strongly.
First, the transport infrastructure system must be invested synchronously, connected smoothly, and become a unified whole. As the leaders of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee have directed, it is necessary to focus on the expressways being deployed such as Ho Chi Minh City - Chon Thanh, passing through Binh Duong to Binh Phuoc and then connecting Ring Road 2 through Long Thanh - Dau Giay. Ring Road 4 also passes through Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong, down to Vung Tau. The Bau Bang - Di An railway connects from Binh Duong to Cai Mep. The routes connecting to Long Thanh airport also need to be prioritized for investment.
I imagine that the new intra-regional and inter-regional transport system of Ho Chi Minh City will be invested strongly, seamlessly and uniformly to maximize resources. Previously, the three localities worked differently and at different paces, but when merged, it will be more synchronized and effective.
In addition to the road and railway systems, the waterway transport system is also very important. Ho Chi Minh City has the Saigon River port and a connected waterway system. Riverbanks need to be planned with riverside routes, forming a waterway freight transport route to reduce the load on roads.
With the length of the Saigon River, this will be a great advantage for transportation, while also creating beautiful, modern urban belts along the river, becoming a characteristic highlight of the new Ho Chi Minh City.
Thank you!
Content: Phan Cong, Q.Huy
Photo: Huu Khoa
Design: Thuy Tien
Dantri.com.vn
Source: https://dantri.com.vn/xa-hoi/tphcm-moi-vuot-qua-giai-doan-ap-luc-nhat-de-huong-toi-tro-thanh-sieu-do-thi-20250730200557353.htm
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