The Government has just issued Decree No. 35/2026/ND-CP detailing the contents related to urban classification.
Article 21 states the order and procedures for proposing to recognize urban areas of type II and type III as follows:
The provincial-level People's Committee assigns specialized agencies under the province to organize the development of a project to recognize urban areas with a scope of more than 1 commune-level administrative unit or assigns the commune-level People's Committee to organize the development of a project to recognize urban areas in cases of recognizing urban areas with a scope within 1 commune-level administrative unit; In case of hiring a consulting unit to develop a project, it shall be implemented in accordance with the law on bidding.
The project-making unit shall organize surveys, develop projects and report according to the provisions of points b and c, clause 2, Article 19 of this Decree (collectively referred to as project-making).
In case the project maker is not the Department of Construction, after completing the draft project explanation, the project maker sends it to the Department of Construction for comments on the draft project explanation;
Within a maximum of 7 working days from the date of receipt of the request document, the Department of Construction is responsible for sending written comments. Within a maximum of 7 working days from the date of receipt of the document from the Department of Construction, the project formulation unit must complete the draft project explanation.
Within a maximum of 5 working days from the date of receiving the completed project description, the Department of Construction is responsible for reviewing the dossier; if the dossier meets the conditions, send 1 set of dossiers to the Provincial People's Committee for organization of appraisal.
The dossier submitted to the Provincial People's Committee includes the documents specified in points a, b and c, clause 2, Article 19 of this Decree (project dossier for recognizing urban type, report evaluating the development level of urban type); In case the Department of Construction prepares a project, the Department of Construction is responsible for preparing the dossier specified in this clause and sending it to the Provincial People's Committee.
Within a maximum of 5 working days from the date of receiving the project dossier specified in Clause 4 of this Article, the provincial-level People's Committee shall issue a decision to establish an inter-sectoral appraisal council to organize project appraisal and assign a specialized agency under the provincial-level People's Committee to be the standing secretary of the Council.
The composition of the Appraisal Council includes representatives of the Provincial Police, the Provincial Military Command and Departments and sectors: Construction, Home Affairs, Finance, Industry and Trade, Agriculture and Environment, Science and Technology, Culture, Sports and Tourism, Education and Training, Health, Planning - Architecture (if any);
Relevant socio-professional organizations and independent experts are decided by the provincial-level People's Committee. The Appraisal Council is responsible for appraising and evaluating project dossiers, scoring and proposing the Chairman of the provincial-level People's Committee to consider and decide on recognizing urban types if they meet the conditions according to regulations.
