As many as 20 districts and 539 administrative units at communal and ward levels will be streamlined under a plan of rearrangement of administrative units, said Phan Van Hung, head of Local Administration under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA).

 He made the statement at an online meeting held on July 16 to review tasks over the past six months and set forth work for the last months of the year.

A total of 42 of 63 provinces and cities need to be rearranged in accordance with the Politburo’s Resolution 37/2018 on the arrangement of administrative units at communal and district levels.

Another four provinces which have volunteered to be rearranged are Binh Thuan, Son La, Tay Ninh and Kien Giang.

Four administrative units at district level have so far submitted merging plans to the MoHA including three districts of Cao Bang and one from Hoa Binh Province, Hung said.

He set August 31 as a deadline for localities to send the plans to the ministry for approval.

Hung called on the localities to launch advocacy activities for cadres and people while collecting opinions from voters and rearranging for officials.

Local governments should be proactive in setting forth plans regarding the rearrangement of officials and public servants to receive consensus from local people, he said.

The rearrangements should be conducted in line with State regulations on arrangement and policy on public officials and servants, he added.

Truong Van Lam, director of HCM City’s Department of Home Affairs, said a project on administrative unit rearrangement for 2019-21 had been carried out under the direction of the Central Government.

He blamed the slow progress on a number of obstacles including the city’s small area and large population.

“Many administrative units do not meet the criteria in terms of area. Therefore, units that do not meet 50 percent of criteria in terms of natural area and population will be merged in the first phase.”

He said the city would submit two proposals to the home affairs ministry. The first option is to merge three wards together. However, he said it couldn’t guarantee meeting the area criteria after the merger. The second option is merging two wards.

Le Thi Thin, deputy chairman of Thanh Hoa Province’s People’s Committee said the province has 143 communes which were to be rearranged. After the mergers, it will have 559 administrative units at commune level, a reduction of 12 percent.

“The arrangement of officials should be organised in an objective and transparent manner. The gathering of opinions from contingent of commune officials and protecting the interests of involved personnel was also a must,” she said.

Even the name of merged communes should be chosen carefully. Communes should be given the right to select their own names and then collect feedback from the public to ensure consensus among residents, Thin said.