The Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee has just issued a plan to develop a Project on recognizing urban types and assessing urban development levels in the area to accelerate the urbanization process, improve the quality of urban development and create a basis for upgrading eligible communes to wards in the coming time.
According to the plan, Ho Chi Minh City sets a goal to thoroughly grasp the urban development orientations according to the Resolution of the 14th Party Congress and the policy of the Politburo, striving to achieve an urbanization rate of over 50% by 2030.
In 2026, the city will focus on reviewing, evaluating and upgrading communes to meet the conditions to become wards, and at the same time forming smart dynamic urban areas and urban chains, strengthening connections with the region and internationally.
The Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee requests a comprehensive review of the current situation of urban development in communes according to the standards and criteria specified in Resolution No. 111/2025 of the National Assembly Standing Committee on urban classification. On that basis, the city will identify investment orientations and development of the urban system and administrative units in accordance with development requirements in the new phase.
The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Construction is assigned to preside over and coordinate with departments, branches and People's Committees of communes to organize the review and evaluation of conditions and criteria for urban classification; guide the collection and calculation of data and prepare project dossiers for urban classification recognition.
Communes are responsible for developing project dossiers, assessing urban development levels and submitting them to the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee for appraisal according to regulations.
According to the plan, the assessment of type II and type III urban areas will be based on the criteria and standards specified in Resolution No. 111/2025/UBTVQH15. The maximum total score of urban classification criteria is 100 points; type II and type III urban areas must achieve at least 75 points and fully meet the minimum criteria according to regulations.
For urban areas within a commune-level administrative unit, the assessment will be carried out throughout the urban area. In case the urban area involves multiple commune-level administrative units, the assessment will be implemented simultaneously throughout the urban area and each component administrative unit.
In parallel with building a project to recognize urban types, Ho Chi Minh City is also implementing a project to establish urban administrative units in the area.
Currently, Ho Chi Minh City has 168 administrative units including wards, communes and special zones; of which 54 communes account for about 32% of the total number of administrative units.
To date, 23 communes have completed the self-review of the current status and sent dossiers requesting the establishment of urban administrative units (wards). Some localities basically meet the standards including: Vinh Loc, Tan Vinh Loc, Binh Loi, Tan Nhut, Binh Chanh, Hung Long, Dong Thanh, Hoc Mon, Ba Diem, Xuan Thoi Son, Can Gio, Binh Hung, Dau Tieng, Phuoc Hai, An Nhon Tay, Ngai Giao, Bac Tan Uyen and Bau Bang.
The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Home Affairs is coordinating with departments and branches to organize the appraisal of standards for establishing wards before submitting them to the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, the Party Committee of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee and the Standing Committee of the City Party Committee for consideration of policies.
For the remaining communes that have not submitted dossiers, the Department of Home Affairs proposes to continue reviewing according to the prescribed criteria so that the city can complete the project dossier and submit it to the Ho Chi Minh City People's Council before June 15.
After being approved by the Ho Chi Minh City People's Council, the dossier will be appraised by the Ministry of Home Affairs, and the Government will consider and submit it to the National Assembly Standing Committee for decision.
