In fact, after 1 year of operating the 2-level local government model, some urban areas after arranging administrative units (UAs) have formed a multi-center development space, with scale and role going beyond the traditional administrative boundaries.
However, according to statistics, there are currently 705/3,321 commune-level administrative units (21.23%) that have not met the standards. Of which, 17 units have not met both the natural area and population scale standards, 529 units (5.93%) have not met the area standards, and 159 units (4.79%) have not met the population standards.
This disperses investment resources, increases management costs, while not fully promoting the advantages of scale to organize the provision of public services and implement socio-economic development tasks in the area.
At the same time, in some places, the boundaries of administrative units after arrangement are not really suitable for the socio-economic development space, and there is still a situation of fragmentation of urban areas, industrial parks, economic zones, tourist areas, relics, scenic spots or areas with high natural connectivity.
This partly affects planning, development space management, infrastructure investment and long-term investment attraction.
Some urban areas after the arrangement of administrative units have formed a multi-center development space, with scale and role going beyond the traditional administrative boundaries.
Some towns merged into rural communes change the management nature of existing urban areas, requiring continued review to form appropriate urban administrative units.
Regarding standards, adjusting administrative boundaries and establishing core urban areas, the Ministry of Home Affairs proposed that the Central Executive Committee, the Politburo, and the Secretariat continue to approve the policy of reviewing and perfecting the model of local government organization in the direction of stability, synchronization, and efficiency.
At the same time, allow the continued merger of small-scale commune-level administrative units that do not meet standards, taking into account specific factors; establish new wards based on towns and urban areas that meet the conditions; study the merger of some central wards to form wards with sufficient scale, playing the role of the development nucleus of provinces and cities.
The arrangement ensures the principle of compliance with Party regulations, the Constitution and laws; ensuring the stability, smoothness, and continuity of state management, in accordance with the socio-economic development strategy of each period, in accordance with the characteristics, natural and social conditions, historical and cultural traditions and requirements for ensuring national defense, security, order, and social safety of each locality.
At the same time, it is suitable for the management capacity of the local government apparatus, the level of application of information technology and digital transformation.
The general spirit is not to arrange to chase after quantity, not to cause unnecessary disruptions, but also not to let irrationalities about administrative units hinder development.
Regarding this issue, Secretary of the Party Central Committee, Deputy Prime Minister Pham Thi Thanh Tra requested each locality to continue to review and comprehensively assess the development space after arranging commune-level administrative units, ensuring compliance with the development requirements, formation and development of commune-level administrative units, especially the core, growth pole of the province and regional linkage.
Along with focusing on handling areas divided too small in urban space, the Deputy Prime Minister requested to study the arrangement of commune-level administrative units that do not meet the standards according to regulations, but continue to closely follow the standards on cultural characteristics, historical traditions, ethnicity, religion, and geography.
Based on the conclusions of the Politburo, the Government will provide specific guidance and complete it completely this year.
