Ministry of Home Affairs explains why Thanh Hoa and Nghe An are not subject to merger

The leader of the Ministry of Home Affairs said that the process of developing the provincial merger project was both urgent and very careful and considerate. The factors to ensure the feasibility of the future merger plan were calculated so that the strategy could be implemented for hundreds of years, even several hundred years.

This information was given at the online seminar "Arranging provinces and cities to create space for a hundred-year development strategy" organized by Dan Tri Newspaper on April 10.

Merger criteria are not just area and population

According to Mr. Phan Trung Tuan - Director of the Department of Local Government (Ministry of Home Affairs), the Draft Resolution of the National Assembly Standing Committee on administrative unit arrangement proposes that 11 provinces are not included in this arrangement. Area and population are initial factors, not decisive factors in the arrangement of administrative units. The decisive factor is how to create more space, opening up better development space in the future.

“I give the example of Nghe An and Thanh Hoa provinces, which do not propose to be reorganized at this stage. In addition to the area and population of these two provinces, we also consider the potential and internal advantages to develop this area large enough, with clear enough factors to create development momentum for the locality and the North Central region. These two provinces can be likened to "Vietnam in miniature" when they have all the areas such as: Mountains, plains, coastal areas, borders, airports, seaports, highways...", said Mr. Phan Trung Tuan.

The leader of the Department of Local Government also added that, in addition to natural area and population, the criteria for merger also take into account factors of national defense, security, and economic development.

"The plans must carefully calculate the factors to come up with the most optimal plan, both implementing the policy of streamlining the apparatus, expanding development space, but still ensuring that the government is close to the people, close to the people, and serves the people," said Mr. Phan Trung Tuan.

Among the criteria, expanding development space is indeed a major criterion, but besides that, there are also many issues that need to be considered such as geographical factors, culture, regional and inter-regional planning issues. In addition, there is another goal that needs to be aimed for, which is to build a streamlined apparatus that operates effectively and efficiently.

“The General Secretary has mentioned many times a requirement recently that in addition to reorganizing the apparatus, it is necessary to reorganize the team of government officials from the grassroots to the central level. The mindset has changed from people coming to the government when needed, now the government also sends officials to stay close to the locality, grasp the thoughts and aspirations of the people to propose mechanisms, policies and promptly resolve the legitimate requests of people, organizations and businesses,” said Mr. Phan Trung Tuan.

Localities complete plans to merge provinces and communes before May 1

At the seminar, the leader of the Department of Local Government affirmed that this is the right time to reorganize administrative units based on the scale, area, population, and development potential of many localities...

In order to have a project to submit to competent authorities, the Ministry of Home Affairs has conducted research for a long time because the policy of merging provinces is included in the Documents of the 13th National Congress of the Party, Resolution No. 27-NQ/TW on continuing to build and perfect the Socialist Republic of Vietnam's rule of law state in the new period. The Ministry of Home Affairs has made fundamental preparations for a long time.

“In addition to proposing a reorganization plan, we have considered many factors to ensure that this merger plan is feasible and practical. Along with the reorganization at the provincial level, the abolition of the district level, and the continued merger of the commune level, there must be a synchronous legal system,” said Mr. Phan Trung Tuan.

In addition to the project on the arrangement of administrative units at all levels that will be submitted to the Central Government, the Ministry of Home Affairs is expected to submit to the Government a draft Law on Organization of Local Government, with fundamental amendments, to replace the current law. With this, from July 1, after amending the Constitution, the 2-level local government apparatus will come into operation immediately.

“With the huge work involved, the Ministry of Home Affairs has promptly coordinated with localities to have initial orientations as a basis for the arrangement and consolidation of provincial and communal level planning,” Mr. Phan Trung Tuan affirmed.

Based on the initial understanding of the Ministry of Home Affairs, many localities have actively prepared detailed plans. May 1 is the deadline for localities to submit the project on the consolidation of provincial and communal levels to the Ministry of Home Affairs. From there, the Ministry of Home Affairs will synthesize, research and complete the project to submit to the National Assembly and the Government.