Special things in merging provinces and cities, reorganizing commune level

Dr. Tran Anh Tuan, former Deputy Minister of Home Affairs, assessed that the merger of provinces, the disorganization of district level and the reorganization of commune level bear the mark of innovation in thinking and vision for development and prosperity.

Recently, the Politburo has reviewed the project to rearrange and reorganize administrative units at all levels and build a two-level local government. It is expected that next week, this content will be sent to collect opinions from localities and sent to ministries and branches for comments.

Break out of conventional thinking

From the request to develop a project to merge some provincial-level administrative units, not organize at the district level, continue to merge commune-level administrative units, Dr. Tran Anh Tuan, Chairman of the Vietnam Administrative Science Association, former Deputy Minister of Home Affairs affirmed that Conclusion 127 of the Politburo and the Secretariat has truly demonstrated a strong spirit and very high political determination in implementing the revolution to streamline the organizational apparatus.

Minister of Home Affairs Pham Thi Thanh Tra pointed out that the core viewpoint when implementing the apparatus arrangement is not simply to streamline the focal points but must aim at the larger goal of expanding the development space, creating a foundation and momentum for the country in the new era while ensuring the long-term stability of the system and organization. This is not a short-term change of a few decades, but must have a strategic vision of a hundred years, even a few hundred years.

The arrangement of administrative units not only shows a specific roadmap but also clearly shows very high and breakthrough goals and requirements. "Compared to previous mergers of administrative units, of course this merger has many differences," Mr. Tran Anh Tuan emphasized.

According to the expert on state organization, this is first demonstrated by the merger of administrative units this time, which is being carried out simultaneously at both the provincial and communal levels. In addition, the organization of local government has been reduced to only 2 levels, without the district level.

"The above two points show that this merger of provinces and cities is part of a revolution in the organizational apparatus, both streamlining and reducing the level of local government, which means a very fundamental change," the former Deputy Minister of Home Affairs analyzed.

Dr. Tran Anh Tuan, former Deputy Minister of Home Affairs, is an expert in public administration (Photo: Vietnam Association of Administrative Science).

Along with the merger of provincial and communal administrative units, Mr. Tran Anh Tuan highly appreciated the new points in the merger criteria in this reorganization. Specifically, the reorganization is not only based on the previous simple criteria such as population size and area, but also has to pay attention to the national master plan, regional planning, local planning, socio-economic development strategy, and expanding the development space associated with 6 socio-economic regions.

"This is also a different point in the merger mindset that is no longer following the old path, not just stopping at the goal of streamlining but reaching further in vision, which is merging to achieve the ultimate goal of development and prosperity. The merger of provinces and communes aims to create a new space, creating a strong driving force for the development of localities, regions and the country," Mr. Tran Anh Tuan emphasized.

In addition to the merger of provinces and commune-level administrative units, the expert also raised the requirement of the Politburo and the Secretariat to conduct research to clearly define commune-level local government models suitable for urban, rural, mountainous, delta, island areas, population size, area, history, culture, national defense, security, ethnicity, religion, etc.

Along with that, the local government model clearly defines functions, tasks, powers, organizational structure, operating mechanism, job positions, staffing...

The noteworthy point that Mr. Tran Anh Tuan mentioned is that the agencies of the Party Committee, the Vietnam Fatherland Front, socio-political organizations... are also organized to ensure consistency at the commune level (after the merger).

Finally, through this merger, the former Deputy Minister of Home Affairs commented that relevant agencies will have to evaluate and classify the staff and civil servants to truly improve the quality of the staff and civil servants in the new organizational apparatus and resolve policies for those affected by the streamlining and merger.

With the above issues, compared to previous mergers, according to Mr. Tran Anh Tuan, this administrative unit arrangement demonstrates the systematic, comprehensive, and synchronous nature of the apparatus streamlining revolution and ensures success, bringing the country to take off into a new era.

Expanding space, expanding vision

Merging some provincial-level administrative units, not organizing at the district level, and continuing to merge commune-level administrative units is essentially a particularly important content in the revolution to streamline the organizational apparatus.

The revolution of streamlining the organizational apparatus is restructuring the political system in the direction of being compact, transparent, strong, operating effectively and efficiently, with clear functions, tasks and powers, avoiding waste of resources.

The former Deputy Minister of Home Affairs summarized: "This is a revolution, and a revolution must start with a change in thinking and awareness. The goal of the revolution to streamline the organizational apparatus is for development and prosperity.

The merger of some provinces and communes this time is approached with a new way of thinking - thinking of development, expanding space, and reaching out to the vision.

The expert supports the new thinking expressed in the orientation of merging provincial administrative units because he clearly sees the goal of merging for development, merging for advancement. According to him, although not simple, this orientation is very convincing to be able to overcome all difficulties and barriers in perception and viewpoint, from which it will certainly succeed.

With the direction to merge many provinces and cities, continue to merge commune-level administrative units and organize local government at only 2 levels, the former Deputy Minister of Home Affairs analyzed the positive and noteworthy points.

Administrative unit arrangement is a revolution in streamlining the apparatus (Illustration: Trinh Nguyen).

Firstly, Mr. Tuan mentioned the benefits of expanding development space for localities in all aspects of socio-economic life, linked with economic development strategies, national master plans, regional planning, etc.

In addition, local government is organized in a streamlined and reasonable manner, suitable to the characteristics of urban, rural and island areas.

Along with the application of digital technology, artificial intelligence and digital transformation, the streamlined local government administrative apparatus will operate more effectively and efficiently, meeting the satisfaction of people and businesses.

A major benefit of this arrangement is that the demarcation of authority between the central and local governments will be strongly implemented.

According to Dr. Tran Anh Tuan, local authorities will have to "decide for themselves, carry out their own tasks and take responsibility" for implementing local socio-economic development tasks and programs.

Along with that, the sub-provincial government (grassroots level) will be given more authority in deciding on tasks related to land, investment, social welfare, etc.

In particular, the quality of the staff and civil servants through streamlining will be improved to match the strong and effective organizational structure, sufficient to meet the requirements of new tasks. The civil service and civil servant regime according to job positions will be built and perfected in the direction of dynamism, responsibility, talent and efficiency.

The former Deputy Minister of Home Affairs said that the budget saved by streamlining the organizational apparatus and reducing local government levels is a meaningful amount for investment in socio-economic development, education, health care, etc. to serve the people better and better.

Dr. Tran Anh Tuan, former Deputy Minister of Home Affairs, assessed that the merger of provinces, the disorganization of district level and the reorganization of commune level bear the mark of innovation in thinking and vision for development and prosperity.

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