District and commune-level administrative units to be reduced

Poor families in Thành Tiến Commune in Thanh Hóa Province’s Thạch Thành District received breeding cows and animal feed under national poverty alleviation programme. The province has 143 communes which were subjected to be rearranged. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI —  As many as 20 districts and 539 administrative units at communal and ward levels will be streamlined under a plan of rearrangement of administrative units, said Phan Văn Hùng, head of Local Administration under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA).

He made the statement at an online meeting held on Tuesday to review tasks over the past six months and set forth work for the last months of the year.

A total of 42 of 63 provinces and cities need to be rearranged in accordance with the Politburo’s Resolution 37/2018 on the arrangement of administrative units at communal and district levels.

Another four provinces which have volunteered to be rearranged are Bình Thuận, Sơn La, Tây Ninh and Kiên Giang.

Four administrative units at district level have so far submitted merging plans to the MoHA including three districts of Cao Bằng and one from Hòa Bình Province, Hùng said.

He set August 31 as a deadline for localities to send the plans to the ministry for approval.

Hùng called on the localities to launch advocacy activities for cadres and people while collecting opinions from voters and rearranging for officials.

Local governments should be proactive in setting forth plans regarding the rearrangement of officials and public servants to receive consensus from local people, he said.

The rearrangements should be conducted in line with State regulations on arrangement and policy on public officials and servants, he added.

Trương Văn Lâm, director of HCM City’s Department of Home Affairs, said a project on administrative unit rearrangement for 2019-21 had been carried out under the direction of the Central Government.

He blamed the slow progress on a number of obstacles including the city’s small area and large population.

“Many administrative units do not meet the criteria in terms of area. Therefore, units that do not meet 50 per cent of criteria in terms of natural area and population will be merged in the first phase.”

He said the city would submit two proposals to the home affairs ministry. The first option is to merge three wards together. However, he said it couldn’t guarantee meeting the area criteria after the merger. The second option is merging two wards.

Lê Thị Thìn, deputy chairman of Thanh Hóa Province’s People’s Committee said the province has 143 communes which were to be rearranged. After the mergers, it will have 559 administrative units at commune level, a reduction of 12 per cent.

“The arrangement of officials should be organised in an objective and transparent manner. The gathering of opinions from contingent of commune officials and protecting the interests of involved personnel was also a must,” she said.

Even the name of merged communes should be chosen carefully. Communes should be given the right to select their own names and then collect feedback from the public to ensure consensus among residents, Thìn said. — VNS