Vietnam to merge districts and communes in selected provinces

Vietnam is expected to reduce the number of districts by 4 and the number of communes by 539 after merging the administrative units that do not meet the geographic size and population criteria.

Many communes that do not meet the geographic size and population criteria will be merged in the coming years.
Many communes that do not meet the geographic size and population criteria will be merged in the coming years.

Under a report compiled by the Ministry of Home Affairs from the reports of provincial and municipal authorities, 13 provinces and centrally-governed cities have districts in need of re-organisation.

Among them, nine provinces and cities proposed delaying the re-organisation to after 2021 due to their specific conditions.

Meanwhile 42 provinces and cities have communes that need to be merged while another four provinces have already moved to merge a number of communes though it is not obligatory.

To date 32 provinces and cities have submitted their re-organisation plans to the Ministry of Home Affairs.

After re-organisation, Hoa Binh province will have 28.09% of its communes trimmed, followed by a 20.1% decrease in Cao Bang province and 18.77% in Phu Tho provinces.

Last year, the Politburo issued a resolution on merging districts and communes in order to streamline the apparatus of local authorities and ensure the resources for socio-economic development are used effectively.

Later the National Assembly and the government also issued two resolutions to realise the Politburo’s policy.