On April 18, the Thanh Hoa Provincial Party Committee held a conference to deploy the arrangement of commune-level administrative units.
At the conference, delegates listened to Mr. Tran Quoc Huy - Director of the Department of Home Affairs of Thanh Hoa province - present a report on the Project on the arrangement of commune-level administrative units in 2025. Accordingly, based on Resolution No. 60-NQ/TW of the 13th Party Central Committee and Resolution No. 76/2025/UBTVQH15 of the National Assembly Standing Committee, Thanh Hoa province plans to reduce the number of commune-level administrative units by about 70%.
Currently, Thanh Hoa has a natural area of over 11,114 km2, a population of over 4.32 million people; has 26 district-level administrative units, including 2 cities, 2 towns and 22 districts (of which, 11 districts are in mountainous areas); 547 commune-level administrative units, including 63 wards, 32 towns and 452 communes, including 16 border communes and towns.
According to the arrangement plan, Thanh Hoa will merge 529 commune-level administrative units (including 435 communes, 63 wards and 31 towns) into 166 new commune-level administrative units, including 18 wards and 148 communes (including 73 plain communes, 75 mountainous communes). The whole province reduced 381 commune-level administrative units, equivalent to a decrease of 69.65%. The number of communes and towns bordering the Lao border remains the same at 16.
The Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial People's Committee agreed to propose not to reorganize 18 commune-level administrative units, including 12/16 border communes bordering Laos and 6 mountainous communes with particularly difficult terrain. Keeping border communes intact is to ensure national defense - security and territorial sovereignty. Of which, 12 border communes and towns will remain; the remaining 4 border communes will be rearranged with communes and towns not located in the border area to continue to enjoy the priority policy of the State.
Do not arrange 6 communes in mountainous and mountainous areas with isolated terrain, traffic difficulties and a large number of ethnic minorities.
Regarding the implementation progress, the time to organize the collection of People's opinions is set before April 21, 2025; the distribution of votes to collect voters' opinions for household representatives will be completed before April 22, 2025.
The People's Council of communes and district levels under the arrangement must issue a resolution through the policy of arrangement before April 23, 2025. People's Committees of districts, towns and cities complete dossiers and submit them to the provincial People's Committee (via the Department of Home Affairs) before April 24, 2025. The provincial People's Council will consider and approve the resolution arranged before April 27, 2025.
After that, the project dossier will be submitted to the Ministry of Home Affairs for appraisal and report to the Government and the National Assembly's Law Committee for examination, so that the National Assembly Standing Committee can decide on the arrangement of commune-level administrative units in Thanh Hoa province from May 1 to June 15, 2025.
Thanh Hoa province will issue a Plan to implement the Resolution of the National Assembly Standing Committee; organize the arrangement and consolidation of the government apparatus in new administrative units; organize a ceremony to announce the resolution, engrave new seals and revoke old seals no later than June 30, 2025.
The new grassroots administrative units will officially operate from 00:00 on July 1, 2025.
