Speaking with VnExpress on the morning of 17/11, Phan Trung Tuan, Director General of the Department of Local Government (Ministry of Home Affairs), stated that the Party, National Assembly, and Government have no policy to continue merging provincial and communal administrative units. Recently, information has circulated on social media suggesting the entire country would merge from 34 down to 16 provinces. However, he affirmed this is "false, inaccurate information".

According to Mr. Tuan, the Ministry of Home Affairs is developing a draft decree to guide public consultation on the establishment, dissolution, merger, division, boundary adjustment, and renaming of administrative units. This new decree aims to replace two existing decrees issued in 2018 and 2023. The draft document does not contain any appendix related to a list of merging localities from 34 down to 16 provinces, as rumored.

He explained that the new draft decree is being developed to align with the 2025 Law on Organization of Local Government. This law stipulates a two-tier administrative system: provincial and communal levels, eliminating the district level and adding special zones (at the communal level). The two current decrees were designed for a three-tier model (provincial, district, communal), making them no longer suitable and requiring amendment.

Phan Trung Tuan, Director General of the Department of Local Government. *Photo: VGP*

The Director General of the Department of Local Government emphasized that the new decree only specifies necessary cases. These include establishing wards based on eligible communes, adjusting administrative boundaries due to geological or topographical changes, or when socioeconomic development necessitates changes. "The draft decree is not intended to merge administrative units at various levels, contrary to the misleading information on social media recently," he said.

Mr. Tuan affirmed that the recent rearrangement of provincial and communal administrative units and the elimination of the district level had multiple goals. It aimed to streamline the apparatus, reduce staffing, and cut budget expenditures, while also opening new development opportunities for localities. This reform of the administrative unit system, implemented from early 2025, aims for long-term stability and was carefully considered by the Party, National Assembly, and Government before execution.

Last July, the local government system was reorganized nationwide. This reduced the number of provinces from 63 to 34, and the number of communes/wards from over 10,000 to 3,321 communes/wards and special zones.

Vu Tuan