According to experts, there are things a country can do and then correct. But there are also things where, once done, the cost of correcting them can be enormous.
Restructuring the provincial-level administrative system, abolishing the district level, reorganizing local governments, and realigning a bureaucracy comprising tens of thousands of officials and civil servants is one such undertaking.
According to Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Chu, over the past five years, Vietnam’s administrative system has undergone unprecedented large-scale reorganizations and mergers, yet the wave of territorial boundary changes shows no signs of abating.
Notably, the policy to abolish the district level and merge provinces—set to be implemented from early 2025 through mid-2026—will result in commune-level units having a scale nearly equivalent to that of the former districts.
However, even as this “redrawing of the administrative map” is just being completed, the Ministry of Home Affairs has already identified 705 communes and wards for further review and potential merger.
This raises the question of why these units were not resolved definitively from the outset, and whether, in the next five years, further rounds of mergers will continue in the absence of scientific justifications regarding criteria for area and population.
It cannot be denied that the two-tier local government model has yielded some initial results, such as reducing intermediate levels, shortening decision-making processes, and facilitating the standardization of data for digital transformation.
Similarly, granting communes greater authority over land, construction, and small-scale investment allows residents to handle certain procedures directly at the grassroots level.
However, the shortcomings and resulting consequences are becoming increasingly evident and threaten the stability of sustainable development.
According to Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Chu, the abolition of the district level has shifted a massive workload down to the commune level, while the grassroots administrative staff is both insufficient in number and limited in professional capacity, leading to an increased risk of errors.
Provincial-level authorities are severely overburdened, as they must directly manage an average of around 100 communes and wards; even large cities like Ho Chi Minh City must manage as many as 168 administrative units.
The vast geographical distances and the sheer number of administrative units have caused a marked decline in the quality of inspection and oversight from the provincial level down to the grassroots level.
Notably, economic development needs—which were previously handled by the district level—now fall into a management “vacuum,” as a single commune lacks the capacity to address them, while the provincial level is too slow to respond due to the great distance involved.
For citizens, administrative services that have been transferred to provincial-level management now require significantly longer travel times and waiting periods.
In addition, the challenges of personnel reshuffling, resolving the status of surplus officials, and addressing the wasteful use of public assets are consuming enormous amounts of the budget yet show no signs of resolution.
This reform initiative by Mr. To Lam is encountering serious flaws. The new state structure concentrates too much power at the central level, which will limit local autonomy.
At the same time, the dual leadership mechanism between the central government and the commune level makes the administrative chain prone to overlap.
Even more serious is the phenomenon of “ruralization” in urban governance, where bustling economic districts are treated on par with purely rural communes in terms of staffing and authority.
Furthermore, the fragmentation of cities formerly under provincial jurisdiction into independent wards has disrupted regional planning coherence and sapped the city’s competitive drive for economic development.
In short, the “reorganization of the country,” if it stops at merely reducing numbers mechanically for show without changing the mindset of management, will find it difficult to escape the cycle of bottlenecks at the provincial level and suffocation at the commune level, as has been seen in recent times.
Trà My – Thoibao.de
