Details of 10 communes about to merge in Hung Nguyen

According to the regulations on commune-level administrative units, Hung Nguyen district currently has 7 communes that have not met 50% of both area and population standards and are on the merger roadmap from now until 2021. However, due to reality, Hung Nguyen district has developed and submitted to the province a plan to merge 10 communes into 5 communes.

Reduce 126 blocks, hamlets

Up to this point, Hung Nguyen has completed the process of steps, from reviewing the scale of households in blocks and hamlets (according to Circular No. 14/2018/TT-BNV, dated December 3, 2018 issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs); developing a merger plan to organizing to collect public opinions, collect opinions of People's Council delegates at the commune level to issue a Resolution on the arrangement and merger of blocks and hamlets in each commune and town.

Accordingly, the whole district has a total of 252 blocks and hamlets; of which 126 hamlets meet from 50% to over 100% of the criteria for the number of households; the remaining 126 hamlets only meet less than 50% of the criteria for the number of households. Thus, based on the regulations on hamlet scale in Circular No. 14/2018/TT-BNV with 250 households/hamlet, Hung Nguyen has 126 hamlets that must be merged and 126 hamlets that do not have to be merged.

The Standing Committee of Hung Nguyen District Party Committee held a dialogue with non-professional activists in the blocks and hamlets throughout the district. Photo: Mai Hoa

Based on the district's merger requirements, localities choose their own merger options, ensuring appropriate geographical location, similarities in cultural lifestyle between hamlets and ensuring the minimum population size according to regulations.

Therefore, in addition to the 126 hamlets that meet less than 50% of the criteria for the number of households to be merged, the localities also added 96 hamlets that meet over 50% of the criteria for the number of households to be merged.

Thus, the total number of blocks and hamlets that must be merged in the district as approved by the People's Councils of communes and towns is 222/252 blocks and hamlets to establish 96 new hamlets. That means after the merger, Hung Nguyen reduced 126 hamlets, from 252 to 126 hamlets after the merger.

According to Mr. Hoang Nghia An - Head of the District's Internal Affairs Department, when the district-wide merger plan is approved and implemented by the province, Hung Nguyen will reduce more than 1,200 part-time workers in the blocks and hamlets and reduce spending by nearly 10 billion VND each year on benefits for the team (not including payments at the grassroots level).

Hung Tan Commune is focusing on building a model new rural commune. Photo: Mai Hoa

Merge 10 communes into 5 communes

According to the Department of Home Affairs, Hung Nguyen has 8 communes that have not met 50% of both area and population standards in the merger roadmap from now until 2021, including: Hung Xa, Hung Lam, Hung Phu, Hung Khanh, Hung Nhan, Hung Tan, Hung Tien and Hung Thang.

However, according to the census data in early April 2019, Hung Tan commune had 4,140 people, so the district proposed that the province remove Hung Tan from the list of communes to be merged in this phase. Thus, there are 7 communes left in the merger roadmap in the first phase.

However, due to the geographical location of some communes with small scale in both area and population, they were forced to merge without being adjacent to each other (except for the two adjacent communes of Hung Phu - Hung Khanh), while some communes adjacent to small-scale communes are quite similar in terms of history, customs, religion, beliefs and especially the high consensus of the people; therefore, a plan was developed and submitted to the province to merge 10 communes into 5 communes.

Specifically, 10 communes were merged into 5 new communes, including Hung Xa and Hung Long; Hung Xuan and Hung Lam; Hung Phu and Hung Khanh; Hung Chau and Hung Nhan; Hung Tien and Hung Thang.

After the merger, Hung Nguyen reduced from 23 communes and towns to 17 communes and towns.