The Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee is seeking opinions on the draft Resolution of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Council stipulating the number and structure of members of the City People's Committee and the framework and number of Vice Chairmen of commune-level People's Committees.
This is to concretize the Law on Urban Development, which takes effect from October 1, 2026.
According to the draft, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee for the 2026 - 2031 term currently has 18 members, including the Commander of the City Command, the Director of the City Police and 16 heads of specialized agencies under the City People's Committee.
These 16 agencies include the City People's Committee Office, City Inspectorate, Department of Justice, Department of Finance, Department of Home Affairs, Department of Construction, Department of Agriculture and Environment, Department of Education and Training, Department of Health, Department of Industry and Trade, Department of Culture and Sports, Department of Religious Affairs and Ethnic Minorities, Department of Science and Technology, Department of Tourism, Department of Planning and Architecture, and Department of Food Safety.
According to the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, the participation of all heads of specialized agencies in the City People's Committee helps ensure the representativeness of sectors and fields in the process of discussing and deciding on issues under collective authority.
However, this structure also has limitations when many contents put forward for collective opinions of the City People's Committee are not directly related to the functions and tasks of some departments and branches. This may prolong the time to collect opinions, affect the progress of work processing and reduce flexibility and timeliness in decisions.
In the context that Ho Chi Minh City is entering a new stage of development, the workload is increasing, the City People's Committee believes that it is necessary to re-examine the number and structure of members in a streamlined direction, focusing on important and regular areas that need to directly participate in collective management activities.
On that basis, Ho Chi Minh City proposes to reduce the number of members of the City People's Committee from 18 to no more than 8 people, including heads of advisory agencies in the fields of Office, Finance, Home Affairs, Justice, Construction, Agriculture and Environment; along with the Commander of the City Command and the Director of the City Police.
The Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee explained that the fields of Office, Finance, Home Affairs and Justice play a xuyên suốt role in directing and operating, ensuring resources, organizational structure and legal basis for the decisions of the City People's Committee.
Meanwhile, the fields of Construction and Agriculture and Environment are selected because they play a direct role in the new growth drivers of Ho Chi Minh City, especially infrastructure development, urban areas, planning, land, site clearance and the implementation of key projects.
In the coming time, Ho Chi Minh City is expected to implement many new mechanisms, policies and tasks according to the Law on Urban Development, such as developing special economic zones, international financial centers, free trade zones, logistics...
According to the City People's Committee, the volume of work related to finance, construction, land and environment will increase day by day, requiring regular and timely coordination within the collective of the City People's Committee.
The streamlining of City People's Committee members does not mean removing the role of heads of departments and branches from the advisory and management process. The goal is to identify positions that need to participate regularly in the decision-making collective, instead of defaulting that all heads of specialized agencies are People's Committee members.
The Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee believes that this plan aims to streamline the apparatus, improve personal responsibility, shorten the discussion process and increase efficiency and timeliness in deciding issues under collective authority.
