Merging districts and communes is expected to result in a surplus of 21,700 officials and civil servants.

On the morning of May 23, at the group discussion session on the socio-economic situation, Minister of Home Affairs Pham Thi Thanh Tra provided more information on the arrangement and merger of district and commune-level administrative units in the 2023-2025 period.

Some localities show signs of hesitation and slowness.

Minister Pham Thi Thanh Tra affirmed that this matter has received special attention from the Central Executive Committee, the Politburo, the National Assembly, and the Government, considering it a key task until the end of 2023, in preparation for the 14th National Party Congress. Along with that, localities are also making great efforts and determination to implement this matter.

To date, the country has 54/63 units subject to the restructuring of district and commune-level administrative units. Accordingly, there are 49 district-level units that must be restructured, with an expected reduction of 12-13 district-level units. The number of commune-level units that must be restructured is 1,247, with an expected reduction of 624 units.

The Minister acknowledged that many provinces and cities have been very active and currently 10 localities have submitted projects to the Ministry of Home Affairs for appraisal and submission to the Government and the National Assembly Standing Committee to issue resolutions to implement the arrangement.

Typically, Nam Dinh province has implemented very resolutely, drastically and arranged very stably, with many favorable mechanisms and policies to solve the problem of cadres, civil servants, public employees and surplus assets. It is expected that Nam Dinh will reduce the number of commune-level units by about 50 units.

According to Ms. Pham Thi Thanh Tra, with the current arrangement, there are 4 localities with a very large number of arrangements: Hai Phong, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Nghe An.

Besides, the Minister also noted that some localities showed signs of hesitation, slowness, and lack of determination and resoluteness in this issue.

"There are only a few months left, but many localities are very slow. If they do not hurry, they will not be able to complete the project by September 30. Up to this point, only 10 localities have submitted their documents. If so, it will be very difficult for the Government to submit to the National Assembly Standing Committee.", the Interior Minister noted.

Besides, some localities only rely on the mechanisms and policies of the Central Government but do not have separate resolutions based on local practices to resolve surplus and plans to arrange surplus assets and finances.

Try to complete the merger of districts and communes before September 30.

The Minister of Home Affairs also informed that, up to this point, the handling of the remaining surplus assets, about 50% of the previous period, is very large. The handling of the surplus cadres and civil servants is very good, basically completely resolved and about 8% of the total is very large.

Regarding the 2023 - 2025 period, the Minister said that the expected surplus of assets, finances, and headquarters is about 2,700, which is very large compared to the previous period. The expected surplus of civil servants and non-professional cadres at the commune level is 21,700 people, which is also very large and without fundamental solutions, it will be difficult to implement.

"The Central and local Steering Committees are trying to coordinate closely to proactively plan from the time of project development to solve this problem. Otherwise, it will be difficult and if we wait until the project is completed and then turn around to arrange and handle arising problems, it will not be synchronous and cannot be implemented.", Minister Pham Thi Thanh Tra emphasized.

The Minister of Home Affairs said that many places are currently facing problems with planning, especially urban planning, because many localities link the arrangement with the establishment of urban administrative units, so they are stuck with urban planning according to regulations. Therefore, the Government is proposing to the National Assembly Standing Committee to resolve this issue.

In addition, the Government is also evaluating and classifying urban administrative units after the arrangement. Because many rural units are arranged with urban areas and many urban units of towns are arranged with city units.

"In summary, the general spirit is that localities are expected to focus on trying to complete before September 30 to ensure the spirit of the resolution and conclusion of the Politburo, resolution 35 of the National Assembly Standing Committee, and the Government.", Minister Pham Thi Thanh Tra said.