Urgently complete administrative unit arrangement before October 2024
This is the required progress to be achieved so that localities can prepare to organize Party Congresses at all levels for the 2025-2030 term, towards the 14th National Party Congress, in which the grassroots level will implement in the first quarter of 2025.
On the afternoon of August 21, the National Assembly Standing Committee continued the questioning session with Ministers and Heads of sectors on the implementation of the resolutions of the National Assembly Standing Committee on thematic supervision and questioning from the beginning of the 15th National Assembly term to the end of 2023 for the second group of fields, including the fields of justice; internal affairs; security, order, social safety; inspection; court; prosecution. Comrade Tran Thanh Man - Politburo member, Chairman of the National Assembly chaired.
Regarding the field of Home Affairs, many delegates questioned a number of contents on the work of arranging administrative units for the period 2023 - 2025.
During this period, 53/63 provinces and centrally-run cities nationwide implemented the arrangement of administrative units at district and commune levels; 10 provinces did not.
Accordingly, at the district level, 49 units will be reorganized (including 9 units subject to reorganization, 18 encouraged units and 22 adjacent units). After reorganization, it is expected to reduce 13 units.
The total number of commune-level administrative units to be reorganized is 1,247 units (including: 745 units subject to reorganization, 111 encouraged units and 391 adjacent units). After reorganization, it is expected to reduce 624 units.
The arrangement of district- and commune-level administrative units in the 2023-2025 period must be completed before October 2024 so that localities can prepare to organize Party Congresses at all levels for the 2025-2030 term, towards the 14th National Party Congress, in which the grassroots level will implement in the first quarter of 2025.
At the question and answer session, Minister of Home Affairs Pham Thi Thanh Tra agreed with the delegates' opinion that although the number of administrative units to be reorganized in the 2023 - 2025 period is very large, the current progress is still very slow.
Up to now, the Ministry of Home Affairs has received 43 dossiers from provinces and cities subject to rearrangement and has chaired and coordinated with ministries, central and local agencies to organize appraisal conferences for 32 project dossiers.
Nghe An is one of the localities that early submitted the dossier on the Proposal to rearrange administrative units at district and commune levels for the period 2023 - 2025 and the Project to adjust administrative boundaries to expand urban space of Vinh city, which was highly appreciated by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
On that basis, the Government has submitted to the National Assembly Standing Committee 3 sets of documents (the National Assembly Standing Committee has passed 3 Resolutions on the arrangement of administrative units in the provinces of Nam Dinh, Tuyen Quang, and Soc Trang) and is reporting to the Government 3 project documents.
However, what worries the Minister of Home Affairs is that the arrangement progress will be very difficult to complete before October 2024 as planned, when there are currently 10 localities that have not yet sent project documents to the Appraisal Council, the most basic reason being problems surrounding urban planning and classification.
Accepting the responsibility of the Ministry of Home Affairs for the slow progress, Minister Pham Thi Thanh Tra also pointed out the responsibility of localities in implementation.
Citing Nam Dinh province, which has a large number of administrative units to be reorganized, but has completed the project documents early and has been approved by the National Assembly Standing Committee, the head of the Ministry of Home Affairs emphasized: "If the locality tries hard and is determined to do this, it will be done."
Therefore, the Minister of Home Affairs suggested that in the coming time, localities need to try to concentrate to complete this task with the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Leading the questioning, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Nguyen Khac Dinh emphasized the spirit of the National Assembly Standing Committee and the Government coordinating very closely to direct localities to act urgently.
If the Government submits a project dossier to reorganize administrative units, the National Assembly Standing Committee is ready to "meet day and night, work even on Saturdays and Sundays" to review the project dossiers.
Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Nguyen Khac Dinh said: The Chairman of the National Assembly has directed to be ready to set aside 1-2 days for a meeting dedicated to this content; at the same time, he hopes that National Assembly deputies will support strengthening supervision and urging localities to properly implement the Resolution of the National Assembly, striving to basically rearrange administrative units before October 2024.
