The Ministry of Home Affairs has just completed the draft Resolution of the National Assembly Standing Committee on the arrangement of administrative units, along with a submission to the Ministry of Justice for appraisal.
According to the draft resolution and the submission of the Ministry of Home Affairs, the arrangement of provincial and commune-level administrative units is based on many important criteria, including natural area, population size, history - culture, religion, ethnicity, geoeconomics, geopolitics, as well as national defense and security factors.
The Ministry of Home Affairs proposes to determine natural areas and population size according to Resolution No. 1211 of 2016 of the National Assembly Standing Committee (amended and supplemented in 2022) to ensure consistency in the classification of administrative units.
The draft resolution also stipulates the principles of administrative unit arrangement with many new contents, based on the guiding viewpoints in the project.
If the two provinces are merged, the administrative unit after the merger will still be called a province. In case a province is merged into a centrally-run city, the unit after the merger will be identified as a centrally-run city.
For the commune level, if the wards are arranged together or with the same administrative unit, the unit after the arrangement will still be the ward. In case the commune and town are rearranged, the administrative unit after the merger will be the commune.
Notably, when the arrangement of commune-level administrative units leads to changes in district-level administrative boundaries, these units will not have to meet conditions and standards and will not need to carry out the process and procedures to adjust district-level administrative boundaries.
To suit local reality, the draft also clearly states: If 4 or more commune-level administrative units are merged, the new unit is not required to meet the standards on area and population. At the same time, after the arrangement, the number of commune-level administrative units in provinces and centrally run cities must decrease by 70-75% compared to the present.
The draft resolution clearly stipulates the principle of naming commune and ward-level administrative units after the arrangement, emphasizing ease of identification, concision, ease of reading, ease of remembering, while ensuring systematicity and science.
The Ministry of Home Affairs encourages the use of one of the existing names of administrative units before the merger, prioritizes names with historical, traditional, cultural values and is agreed upon by local people.
In particular, naming by order of numbers is also proposed to facilitate the process of digitization and updating information data.
The drafting agency proposes to name the new commune-level administrative unit after the district-level administrative unit before rearranging, combined with the serial number to ensure connectivity in administrative management and data systems.
Notably, the names of the new communes and wards after the merger must not overlap with the administrative units at the same level within the province or centrally-run city. This also applies to provinces and cities expected to be established according to the orientation of arranging provincial-level administrative units approved by competent authorities.
