At a meeting of the National Assembly Standing Committee

The resolution was approved by the National Assembly Standing Committee at its meeting on February 11.

After re-organisation, Thai Bình province will have its communes trimmed by 26 units while Lao Cai province and Hanoi will decrease by 10 and five, respectively. Can Tho city and Khanh Hoa province will reduce by two and one communes respectively.

Tra Linh, Trung Khanh, Phuc Hoa and Quang Uyen districts in Cao Bang province will be merged into two.

Addressing the meeting, Secretary of Cao Bang province’s Party Committee Lai Xuan Mon said the rearrangement was welcomed by constituents (over 90 percent), adding that the province had dispatched delegations to visit Quang Ninh, Thanh Hoa and Nghe An to gain more experience about the places.

Many people might raise concern over the merging of administrative units because some will get higher position while others lose their jobs, he said.

However, the provincial Party Committee has introduced measures to handle all possible problems, Mon added.

According to the official, the merging will help boost the province’s economic development and improve its defence capacity and political security.

National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan emphasised the need to ensure all residents would be on board with the plans.

“In addition to natural areas, it was necessary to consider defence and security factors as well as cultural traditions before merging administrative units with a view to boost living standards and the region’s economy,” she said.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA) plans to merge 631 communal administrative units and 16 district-level units by 2021 in accordance with a resolution issued by the Politburo in 2018 to streamline the apparatus of local authorities and ensure the resources for socio-economic development are used effectively.

The units to be merged are the ones that do not meet criteria in terms of natural area and population for their current classification.

To date 44 out of 45 provinces and cities (excluding Ho Chi Minh City) have submitted their re-organisation plans to the MoHA./.VNA

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Hoang Trung, director of the Plant Protection Department, speaks on the benefits of moving to an online system to help speed up procedures.

Vietnam pledges to further enhance administrative reform

The Vietnamese Government, for years, has been focusing on enhancing administrative reforms to improve the business environment, said Mai Tien Dung, Minister and Chairman of the Government Office.