Vietnam to finalize provincial mergers by August, Local restructuring by June

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 19, 2025

Vietnam is accelerating administrative reforms, aiming to complete commune-level restructuring by June 30, 2025, and finalize provincial mergers by August 30, 2025.

Minister of Home Affairs Pham Thi Thanh Tra announced that the restructuring of commune-level administrative units will be completed by June 30, while provincial mergers will be finalized before August 30.

Speaking at the first session of the Government Steering Committee on Science, Technology, Innovation, Digital Transformation, and Project 06 on March 18, Minister Tra provided updates on administrative reform efforts for 2024 and early 2025.

She emphasized that the restructuring marks a transformative shift in Vietnam’s political system, streamlining governance for greater efficiency. Recent reforms have already significantly reduced the administrative apparatus, laying the groundwork for further improvements.

At the national level, Vietnam has reduced its number of ministries and equivalent agencies to 17, eliminating five ministries and three government agencies. Internal structures have also been streamlined, cutting:

13 general departments

519 departments

219 offices

3,303 sub-departments

The restructuring has led to a 20% reduction in personnel across ministries and sectors, eliminating approximately 22,300 positions, with most agencies adhering to newly allocated staffing quotas.

At the provincial level, all 63 provinces and cities have implemented restructuring measures, resulting in a:

29% reduction (343 specialized agencies) within provincial People’s Committees

17.5% reduction (1,454 district-level agencies)

During the session, Minister Tra outlined eight key priorities for administrative reform in 2025, with a strong focus on restructuring both provincial and commune-level administrative units. She stressed the importance of a cautious yet efficient approach to ensure smooth implementation.

“We aim to complete the commune-level restructuring by June 30, allowing the new administrative units to begin operations on July 1. Similarly, provincial mergers will be finalized by August 30, enabling newly merged provinces to start operations on September 1,” Minister Tra stated.

She noted that the transition to a two-tier local government system is being implemented at an accelerated pace, following a "building while operating" approach.

Given the complexity and urgency of these reforms, the Ministry of Home Affairs has called for close collaboration among relevant ministries and agencies to provide timely guidance to local authorities.

Minister Tra also emphasized the need for stronger law enforcement, administrative discipline, and effective implementation of new policies governing civil servants and public employees.

“In the near future, the Law on Cadres and Civil Servants will be amended to enhance management and facilitate the mobility of commune-level officials to higher administrative levels,” she added.

Provincial mergers can boost infrastructure connectivity: expert

The President of the Planning and Development Institute and former Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment, Dang Huy Dong, spoke to Voice of Vietnam (VOV) about the impacts of administrative unit rearrangement on traffic infrastructure development.

The average area of Vietnam’s cities and provinces is expected to increase as the country looks into merging several of its localities, following the request of the Politburo and the Secretariat of the Communist Party of Vietnam.

Dang Huy Dong, President of the Planning and Development Institute and former Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment, spoke about the impacts of this rearrangement in terms of traffic infrastructure development.

How can merging provincial and municipal administrative units benefit the development of traffic infrastructure?

In my opinion, [the mergers] will bring positive opportunities in several aspects.

In the past, when we planned for regional traffic connectivity improvements, local areas which benefited more from these investments would be more proactive than others. The funding came from the State budget, but these local authorities would make more efforts in land clearance. However, localities with fewer benefits from this infrastructure were less enthusiastic, leading to slow progress in land clearance.

For example, there was a stretch of road passing through Nam Dinh Province to reach Thai Binh Province, including a section linking Nam Dinh City to Tan De Bridge situated between the two localities.

This project took years to complete on the Nam Dinh side, while the construction in Thai Binh had been finished long ago. Nam Dinh made minimal efforts because it did not benefit much from this road section.

The upcoming mergers of provincial administrative units are expected to address this type of issue. The rearrangement will also allow for the adjustment of spatial planning and traffic connectivity for local socio-economic development.

I believe that this adjustment will bring better results in terms of investment, operations, budget costs and overall efficiency.

Regarding investment effectiveness, how will merging cities and provinces help reduce small-scale and scattered investment projects?

Reducing small-scale and scattered investments is an issue to be addressed at both the central and local levels. Projects using the state budget include national, regional, and interprovincial routes, but they have encountered problems with untimely and insufficient funding allocation.

Meanwhile, too many plans for regional and interprovincial roads would lead to a lack of funds. Therefore, the administrative rearrangement will allow focus on the main large routes connecting major provinces.

Regarding local routes using local budgets, investments have been scattered because every locality has limited investment funding, which forces them to make small, separate investments. This situation has led to unfinished and delayed projects, causing wasteful investments and slow realisation of project benefits.

The administrative replanning increases the scale of a province, coupled with priority funding from the state budget and better prioritisation of infrastructure projects, which will help accelerate investments and ensure the construction schedule. Combined with new approaches and mechanisms, I believe that small-scale, scattered investments will be greatly reduced.

What are the other advantages that the mergers of cities and provinces can bring?

The mergers will certainly reduce unhealthy local competition and increase the collective benefits. In particular, I see great opportunities for us to increase connectivity through inter-regional railways.

The benefits have not been very visible in smaller provinces. However, with larger areas [after municipal and provincial mergers], a railway network that improves linkages between localities, regions and across the country will have great impacts when demands increase.

A larger province can also facilitate mobilising investments for railway connectivity to boost public transport use, which is a very good thing. 

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