Some issues of concern in developing plans for commune arrangement and merger in Nghe An

Proactively implement conditions for administrative unit arrangement

Based on the direction and orientation of the Central and the province, in recent times, district-level units in Nghe An province have proactively reviewed factors and conditions to be ready for the implementation of a two-level government and the arrangement of commune-level administrative units.

For example, Do Luong district has focused on reviewing the current status of facilities (including headquarters of administrative agencies and public service units at district and commune levels); the quantity and quality of cadres, civil servants, public employees and workers in the district. Along with reviewing the staff, Do Luong district focuses on propaganda and ideology work, including setting out criteria for selecting cadres and civil servants for the new administrative apparatus to have qualifications that meet the requirements, while at the same time analyzing for cadres and civil servants to clearly see the difficulties and challenges after the merger with higher capacity and qualifications requirements, digital transformation requirements, building a stronger digital government, etc.

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Currently, Do Luong district has 189 district and commune-level officials, civil servants and public employees who have applied for early retirement and resignation according to Decree 178 dated December 31, 2024 and Decree 67 dated March 15, 2025 of the Government as soon as the two-level government takes effect.

Regarding the plan to arrange commune-level administrative units, according to comrade Bui Duy Dong - Member of the Provincial Party Committee, Secretary of Do Luong District Party Committee: The locality has carefully researched and considered on the basis of 7 criteria, including legal basis; area, population; socio-economic development space; terrain and regional characteristics; criteria for access and connection to administrative centers; consideration of special cases; reasonable administrative boundaries, to build appropriately according to the orientation of the Central Government, the province and local practices.

For Thanh Chuong district, based on the Central Government's orientation of reducing 50% of the total number of existing communes and reviewing and researching criteria on population area, historical, cultural, ethnic, religious traditions, etc., the district has developed 8 plans to arrange from 6-14 communes/total of 29 current communes and towns, associated with naming orientations and headquarters location plans.

"These proposed plans were based on consultation with the people, intellectuals, and former district leaders of different periods" - Comrade Trinh Van Nha - Deputy Secretary of the District Party Committee, Chairman of the People's Committee of Thanh Chuong district shared.

The plan for commune arrangement and merger has also been carefully studied by the localities of Ky Son, Tuong Duong, Con Cuong, etc. on the basis of closely following the principles and standards for arrangement according to Conclusion No. 137 dated March 28, 2025 of the Politburo and the Central Party Secretariat. That is to implement the arrangement of commune-level administrative units in the direction of reducing about 50% of current administrative units and not forming a miniature district level in order to bring cadres truly close to the people, serving the people and businesses well.

Localities also carefully study specific factors of history, tradition, culture, ethnicity, religion, beliefs, customs, practices, development level, geographical location, and traffic connections; including studying isolated locations and locations of special importance related to national defense, security, and protection of national sovereignty, etc. to develop plans for arranging commune-level administrative units.

Along with developing a plan to arrange commune administrative units, combined with reviewing the current situation to develop a plan to arrange and assign cadres, civil servants, public employees and handle facilities; localities in the province have also focused on reviewing investment projects and works in the area to proactively plan to transfer and increase capital for projects and works that are about to be completed, focusing on completing the final settlement records to review and repay debts for basic construction investment...

Some issues to consider

In early April 2025, the Provincial People's Committee established 5 working groups to review, research, and orient the arrangement of administrative units at all levels and the construction of a 2-level local government of the province, and had meetings in many localities in the province. Through that, the problem that the working groups noted was that currently, the development of plans for the arrangement and merger of communes is following the administrative boundaries of each district-level unit without a general connection for the whole province when the district level is abolished, meaning that there are no more district-level boundaries, but communes are directly under the province. This leads to isolated communes, divided in terms of terrain, difficult traffic connections, and even development space, too long vertical geographical distances..., which are not suitable for merging with adjacent communes in the same district-level unit, but very suitable for merging with communes adjacent to other district-level units.

This practice has been clearly recognized by the Central Committee and in Conclusion No. 137, the Politburo and the Central Party Secretariat also put forward one of the principles for arranging and reorganizing commune-level administrative units: "Implementing the arrangement of commune-level administrative units is not limited to the current administrative boundaries of the district and commune levels".

Based on the reality and requirements set by the Central Government, in the working program in the districts, Comrade Phung Thanh Vinh - Member of the Provincial Party Executive Committee, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, Head of Working Group No. 5 of the province requested district-level units to proactively review, evaluate and propose to the province a plan to arrange commune-level units in areas bordering adjacent districts, ensuring reasonable administrative boundaries, development space, convenient transportation and resolving administrative boundary disputes between communes in districts that have existed for many years; at the same time, assign the Department of Home Affairs to conduct a comprehensive study based on proposals from localities to advise and submit to the province a plan to arrange and reorganize commune-level administrative units scientifically and effectively.

Along with the above issue, the opinion of Secretary of Do Luong District Party Committee Bui Duy Dong and Deputy Secretary of District Party Committee, Chairman of Thanh Chuong District People's Committee Trinh Van Nha suggested that the province, in the process of developing a plan to arrange and merge communes, needs to clearly identify the dynamic communes and commune regions, creating a push for leading growth poles as well as realizing the common goals and tasks of the province according to the provincial planning, district planning, especially Resolution 39 of the Politburo on building and developing Nghe An province to 2030, with a vision to 2045.

Naming new communes after the rearrangement is also a matter of concern and concern based on the orientation of the Central and the province to be easy to identify, concise, and scientific; encouraging naming by serial number or by the name of the district-level administrative unit (before the rearrangement) with serial number attached to facilitate digitization and updating of information data; naming based on historical, traditional, and cultural values ​​and supported by local people.

Currently, there is not much time left to develop a project to rearrange and reorganize commune-level administrative units for the province to submit to the Ministry of Home Affairs before submitting to the Government before May 1, 2025, while there is still a lot of work to be done. This requirement is being placed on the province and provincial departments, branches, and localities with a sense of urgency to ensure the development of a scientific and effective commune rearrangement plan.