The plan to arrange administrative units at district and commune levels in the 2023-2025 period of Ho Chi Minh City has just been approved by the National Assembly Standing Committee.
From now until 2025, Ho Chi Minh City will merge 80 wards (in Districts 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11, Binh Thanh, Go Vap and Phu Nhuan) into 41 wards (including 38 new wards).
This merger will change the administrative boundaries and names of many wards, leading to the need to adjust a series of personal and business documents such as citizen identification cards, real estate documents, bank accounts, or addresses printed on business cards and product packaging.
It is estimated that about 800,000 people in 38 new wards will have to adjust their documents due to changes in administrative boundaries.
To support people, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee commits to completely exempt all fees and charges for document conversion.
The Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee also directed 10 districts and wards after the merger to develop a detailed propaganda and guidance plan to ensure that the document conversion procedures are carried out quickly and without causing inconvenience.
Chairwoman of District 10 People's Committee Nguyen Thi Thu Huong said that the district will proactively guide and support people and organizations to convert necessary documents without charging any fees.
Mr. Vo Van Hoan - Vice Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee emphasized that the city will have a transitional handling mechanism to minimize the impact on people's lives.
In some cases, the authorities will adjust the relevant information themselves, saving people from having to make changes themselves.
"HCMC will ensure that the document exchange is minimally disruptive, supporting people and businesses in transactions, production and business," Mr. Hoan affirmed.
According to Dr. Tran Quang Thang - Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Institute of Economics and Management, the city needs to clearly announce the time and roadmap for converting documents to avoid the situation where people rush to convert at the same time, causing overload.
Mr. Thang also proposed that authorities prioritize using data from the National Population Database, instead of requiring people to directly update information on paper.
From 1975 to present, Ho Chi Minh City has undergone 7 separations and mergers of administrative units. Most recently in 2021, Ho Chi Minh City merged 3 districts: 2, 9, Thu Duc into Thu Duc City. Also in this year, Ho Chi Minh City merged 19 wards of Districts 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, Phu Nhuan.
After 7 administrative unit separations, Ho Chi Minh City currently has Thu Duc City, 16 districts and 5 counties; 249 wards, 58 communes and 5 towns.
Thus, with this plan to rearrange 80 wards, Ho Chi Minh City will reduce to 210 wards.
