People want convenient procedures
The plan to reorganize district and commune-level administrative units in Ho Chi Minh City for the 2023-2025 period has just been approved by the National Assembly Standing Committee. The merger of 80 wards will be implemented in districts 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11, Binh Thanh, Go Vap and Phu Nhuan. In particular, in the 38 new wards after the merger, about 800,000 people will need to change their documents due to changes in administrative boundaries and ward names.
Mr. Mai Van Minh (60 years old, Ward 10, District 3) shared that he supports the merger of Ward 10 into Ward 9 to form a new Ward 9. However, he expressed concern about having to update a series of important documents. "If the home address does not change, the documents should be added with the new ward name or updated online instead of starting over" - Mr. Minh suggested.
Similarly, Ms. Nguyen Thi Huong (40 years old, Ward 21, Binh Thanh District) hopes that the document conversion process will go smoothly. "The city needs to clearly announce the roadmap and support automatic information updates, avoiding people having to carry out complicated procedures themselves," Ms. Huong said.
In Binh Thanh District, the merger will directly affect 131,000 residents. Ward 6, Binh Thanh District will be split, forcing all residents to change their personal information.
Mr. Ngo Quoc Anh - Chairman of Ward 6 People's Committee, committed to providing maximum support to minimize inconvenience to people, and at the same time encouraged civil servants in the process of personnel arrangement.
According to Mr. Phan Quang Khanh, Head of the Internal Affairs Department - Binh Thanh District People's Committee, after the merger, on average, one ward official will serve 3,000 people. "We are actively applying information technology and digital transformation to support people and reduce pressure on officials," Mr. Khanh affirmed.
Solutions to support people and redundant staff
In District 6, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Thanh, Chairman of Ward 1 People's Committee, said that the workload will be very large after the merger. To limit the impact on people and businesses, the ward has developed a plan to handle backlog tasks such as inventorying assets, submitting documents to the archive, and at the same time establishing a specialized working group to quickly resolve paperwork procedures.
Ho Chi Minh City plans to spend about 241 billion VND to restructure the administrative apparatus, including reassigning 2,615 officials and civil servants in the merged wards.
According to Mr. Vo Van Hoan, Vice Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, redundant officials will be arranged appropriately according to the roadmap, ensuring their rights whether they continue to work or quit.
Mr. Vo Van Hoan said that Ho Chi Minh City will have detailed instructions to resolve administrative procedures for people after the wards are merged. Some types of documents will have their information automatically adjusted by the State management agency on the system, for example, some information can be updated via the VNeID application. Other procedures will also be carried out when people come to do administrative transactions.
“The city commits to not charging fees for matters related to document adjustment. The goal is to minimize disruption and limit impacts on the daily life and business activities of people and businesses,” emphasized Mr. Vo Van Hoan.
Speaking at a recent meeting of the Steering Committee for Administrative Unit Reorganization, Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee Nguyen Van Nen emphasized that the goal of the merger process is to be “more stable and better”. Mr. Nguyen Van Nen requested that authorities at all levels listen to people’s opinions, resolve problems in administrative procedures and develop reasonable plans for redundant staff.
"The merger process is not only to streamline the administrative apparatus but also to ensure convenience and stability for the people" - the Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee affirmed.
