Building a two-level government: Party's will and people's will
The revolution of streamlining the political system's organizational apparatus is creating a high consensus among cadres, party members and people in Nghe An province. Nghe An Newspaper has recorded some shared opinions from cadres, party members and people in the province.
The revolution of streamlining the political system's organizational apparatus is creating a high consensus among cadres, party members and people in Nghe An province. Nghe An Newspaper has recorded a number of shared opinions from cadres, party members and people in the province.
Plum Blossom(Note) • May 3, 2025
Abolishing district-level administrative units and reducing commune-level administrative units is a historic decision of the Party; it affirms the Party's strong determination to reform administration, including reforming the organization of the state administrative apparatus.
Having worked at the district level for many years, I clearly see that: The main function and task of the district level is to convey, guide, inspect, urge, and remind the activities of the grassroots level in implementing the instructions of the higher levels; and the commune level is the level that actually directly implements the contents and work, and brings policies and guidelines into life.
At a level with a full apparatus but only performing "intermediate" tasks; especially, currently, our country is promoting the application of information technology in direction, management and operation, strong digital transformation with the digitization of all data, implementing the "Digital Literacy" movement and applying AI in all fields, then maintaining the district-level intermediary apparatus is unnecessary. Therefore, the Central Government's policy of abolishing the district level is an extremely correct and timely historical decision.
The issue that the Central Government and Nghe An province need to pay attention to is to clearly establish coordination regulations between the provincial and communal levels, and at the same time clearly define the functions, tasks and powers of the provincial and communal levels when the district level is abolished in order to promote the efficiency, effectiveness and efficiency of the two-level government apparatus. Along with that, it is necessary to orient and direct the arrangement and assignment of cadres not only at the communal level but also at the provincial departments, branches and sectors to be truly both "red" and "specialized", meeting the requirements of the tasks in the new era, the era of national development.
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The policy of eliminating the district level and rearranging the commune-level administrative units is creating a very high consensus and support from cadres, party members and people, because of many visible benefits: Eliminating the district level will reduce the intermediary apparatus between the province and the commune, reduce staff, reduce budget expenditures for the apparatus to reserve resources for investment in development and serving people's lives, while the policy of exempting tuition fees for students from kindergarten to public high school starting from September 2025 and moving towards exempting hospital fees for all people of the Central Government is really making people happy and excited.
On the other hand, it is to enhance the initiative and "self-determination" of the commune level, promote the implementation of policies and guidelines of the Central and the province as well as resolve the needs and interests of the people and businesses more quickly and promptly... At the same time, expand the space and conditions to promote socio-economic development for each locality, together towards the highest goal of improving people's lives.
The issue raised by cadres and people is that the team of commune-level cadres must possess all the factors of qualifications, capacity, enthusiasm and responsibility. Therefore, it is recommended that competent authorities pay attention to selecting and arranging qualified commune-level cadres based on objective and honest assessment of the existing team of district- and commune-level cadres using specific criteria and standards, creating conditions and opportunities for cadres who are truly qualified, capable, enthusiastic and responsible to continue to participate in the administrative apparatus and serve the people.
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The policy of merging larger-scale communes and abolishing the district level, which is being implemented by the Central and provincial levels, affirms that "the Party's will and the people's heart" are one. Although this is an "unprecedented strategic decision" as General Secretary To Lam emphasized, and has not yet been put into practice, through the political system, mass media, and social networks, cadres, party members and people have clearly grasped the positive impacts of this historic policy. That is, reducing intermediary levels, reducing "bulkiness", streamlining the apparatus and the direct benefits are enjoyed by people and businesses when conducting transactions without having to go through many stages, going back and forth many times and wasting time and travel costs.
On the State side, the budget for maintaining the operation of the apparatus is also reduced, the number of employees is reduced, the source of salary payment for officials will be reduced, and those resources will be spent on investing in socio-economic development and improving the quality of life of the people, then the ultimate benefit will be the people. From those positive impacts, I myself and through understanding public opinion, agree to support the policy of abolishing the district level and arranging, merging, and expanding the scale of the commune level to a larger one. The important thing is that the operation of the 2-level government apparatus starting from July 1, 2025 when the district level is abolished must ensure the real effectiveness of the apparatus; because people now not only need a government close to the people, but more importantly, a government that operates effectively, better serves the legitimate needs of the people, not allowing people and businesses to be disadvantaged or have difficulty in accessing public services.
If the Party's ideas are in line with the people's wishes, the people are ready to support them. We, the people, are not afraid of change, when that change is for the common development of the country, our homeland, and to better serve the people./.
