VietNamNet Bridge – The HCM City People's Council on September 27 approved a pilot project on the implementation of the urban administration to submit to the Government and the National Assembly for consideration in the Congress session in October.

A meeting of the HCM City People's Council.

According to Mr. Truong Van Lam, director of the HCM City Department of Home Affairs, the urban administration has two levels, instead of three levels as present.

In particular, the HCM City government will play the role of the government of the centrally-governed city and the administrations of 13 inner districts.

In each district, the representative administrative agency will be the Administration Committee and the chair of the committee will be appointed by HCM City Chair.

In the areas that are being urbanized, four cities will be established, tentatively called East City (including districts 2, 9 and Thu Duc), West City (including Binh Tan District, a part of District 8 and part of Binh Chanh District), South City (including the entire district 7 and Nha Be district and part of District 8) and North City (including District 12 and the majority of Hoc Mon district).

Under this scheme, in HCM City and four smaller cities, communes and towns will have the People’s Council and People’s Committee, elected in accordance with law. For the current administrative units in 24 districts, 259 wards, they will not be organized as a level of government but will only have representative administrative agency (now called the People’s Committee) of the higher-level or the grassroots-level governments. Each level of government will operate under the principles of autonomy and self-responsibility.

Chair of HCM City People’s Council – Mr. Nguyen Thi Quyet Tam – said the building of the urban administration is an urgent need of the city.

Last year, the government asked eight provinces and cities to make research on the urban administration model, including: Nghe An, Hanoi, HCM City, Hai Phong, Da Nang, Can Tho, Ba Ria - Vung Tau and Nam Dinh.

This aims to build transparent, modern, accountable and efficient local government structures with sufficient capacities, reasonable powers and effective management policies. By studying and improving the organization and operations of local governments, in addition to separating the organizational model and operational mechanisms of urban and rural administrations, the project is expected to greatly contribute to the comprehensive reform of central government.

The proposed models of urban administration in Vietnam:

For centrally-run cities, provincial capitals and towns, urban administration would consist of elective bodies (People’s Council) and administrative agencies (Administrative Committee). An Administrative Committee Chairman (or Mayor) would head the administrative agencies and would be elected by the People’s Council. The Chairman of Administrative Committee would have the right to appoint the Committee’s Vice Chairman.

For districts and wards, only administrative agencies would be established. Heads of these agencies would be directly appointed by the Chairman of Administrative Committee under centrally-run cities.

The project is expected to be completed and submitted to the Politburo and the Party’s Central Secretariat for review and comments by December. It is considered the foundation for adjustments to articles in the 1992 Constitution on local government and amendments to the organizational model and operational mechanisms of urban administration prescribed in the Law on Organization of People’s Council and People’s Committee.

Tran Cham