On the morning of June 12, 2025, at the 9th session of the 15th National Assembly, a landmark proposal was put forward by Deputy Head of the Quang Ninh National Assembly Delegation, Nguyen Thi Thu Ha. She advocated for Quang Ninh to be recognized as a centrally-run city, a move tied closely to the broader national effort to rearrange provincial-level administrative units by 2025. This session marked a crucial moment in Vietnam's ongoing administrative reform, aiming to streamline governance and boost development.
Nguyen Thi Thu Ha expressed strong support for the policy of administrative unit rearrangement, highlighting its strategic importance. She described it as a vital step toward refining the state administrative apparatus to be leaner, more efficient, and effective. This move concretizes the Communist Party’s major directives and serves as a strategic solution for reorganizing the country’s administrative territory more rationally and cohesively. It aligns with economic restructuring, resource redistribution, and enhances national governance and competitiveness in a new era.
The rearrangement plans, she emphasized, are grounded in legal standards concerning natural area and population size, ensuring regional connectivity and long-term developmental stability. Public consultation and local People's Council feedback were conducted earnestly, resulting in very high approval rates, signaling strong public support and expectations for this policy. Post-merger provinces are expected to be larger and endowed with more diverse natural resources, enabling them to plan socio-economic development on a grander scale, attract stronger investment, and organize production and services more sustainably.
Moreover, the reorganization is set to facilitate the restructuring of administrative agencies at all levels, improving governance efficiency and service quality for citizens and businesses alike. It also offers an opportunity to promote institutional reforms, aiming for a leaner, modern, transparent, and professional local government model. However, Nguyen Thi Thu Ha cautioned about challenges such as managing surplus public offices, arranging personnel reasonably, and ensuring policy benefits, especially for commune-level officials. She urged the government to accelerate salary reforms to cope with increased workloads following mergers.
Of particular note, Nguyen Thi Thu Ha proposed that Quang Ninh, which already meets over 60% of urban criteria and possesses sufficient population, economic scale, urban development, and governance capacity, be recognized as a centrally-run city. This recognition would unlock the province’s full potential and contribute more significantly to national socio-economic development.
Yet, as Vietnam embarks on this sweeping administrative overhaul, the importance of personnel management cannot be overstated. A recent analysis of the ongoing streamlining revolution of the political system underscores the critical role of cadre work. While many officials and public servants trust the Party’s policies and embrace the reforms, viewing them as an objective necessity, the process is not without its pitfalls.
Negative phenomena such as "running for positions" and "sharing positions" have emerged amid the reorganization. Some individuals see this as a "once-in-a-thousand-years opportunity" to secure higher, more lucrative posts by exploiting existing relationships, offering money or favors, and influencing personnel decisions improperly. They quickly identify promising leadership roles in newly merged bodies and invest decisively to secure them. This behavior threatens meritocracy and fairness, sidelining capable grassroots officials and fostering resentment.
Such misconduct risks eroding public trust in the Party and State, triggering a domino effect of skepticism and potentially fostering internal decay. It also undermines the core objective of a lean, effective apparatus by placing unqualified individuals in key positions, causing talent loss and resource wastage. To counter this, General Secretary To Lam emphasized the principle of "arranging personnel for the job," prioritizing job requirements above all else during mergers and streamlining. The Politburo’s Conclusion No. 157-KL/TW, issued on May 25, 2025, strictly prohibits interference in personnel arrangements and calls for vigilance against corruption and factionalism.
Leaders at all levels are urged to serve as the first line of defense against these negative trends by exemplifying integrity, impartiality, and resilience against pressure. Additionally, cadre work regulations must be reviewed and tightened to ensure transparency, democracy, and clear criteria, preventing decisions cloaked in collective responsibility but driven by individual interests. Accountability mechanisms and enhanced oversight are vital to promptly detect and punish violations. Ultimately, the ethics, responsibility, and competence of each official form the foundation to uphold the principle of "arranging personnel for the job," ensuring that career advancement is earned through talent and virtue rather than manipulation.
Meanwhile, the broader political system’s reform, including the streamlining of the entire administrative apparatus, has faced distortion and misinformation, especially on social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok. Hostile forces and a small minority within the Party have spread false narratives portraying the reform as an arbitrary personal agenda, a destabilizing purge, or a "half-hearted" change due to lack of political reform. These claims ignore the long history of Vietnam’s administrative reforms, dating back to the 6th National Congress in 1986 and concretized by Resolutions 39-NQ/TW (2015) and 18-NQ/TW (2017).
The reform aims to build a lean, efficient, and effective political system compatible with a socialist-oriented market economy. It strengthens Party leadership, enhances state management, and promotes people’s mastery. It also targets reducing overlapping functions between agencies, ensuring that each task is led by a single responsible body to improve management and operational efficiency. On June 13, 2025, the Party Central Committee issued Conclusion 167-KL/TW, mandating full operationalization of the new administrative units and apparatus at provincial and communal levels from July 1, 2025.
Provincial Party Committees are tasked with promptly appointing People's Councils, People's Committees, and leadership positions at the commune level to ensure readiness by July 1. They must also complete Party membership transfers for officials in merged county-level departments and finalize personnel allocation, office arrangements, and operational resources by mid-June. Benefits and policies for officials and workers affected by the reorganization are to be expedited to maintain stability.
The reform has been accelerated significantly, advancing from the originally planned September 1 start to July 1, demonstrating the nationwide resolve for change. The National Assembly’s June 12 resolution on provincial administrative unit rearrangement passed with overwhelming support—461 out of 465 delegates voting in favor—resulting in 34 provincial-level units (28 provinces and 6 cities), including new entities formed through mergers.
Minister of Home Affairs Pham Thi Thanh Tra expressed deep gratitude for this historic consensus, noting over 96% nationwide voter approval, with some localities exceeding 99%. This reflects the people’s desire for a streamlined, effective government that serves citizens and businesses better.
However, the reform has not been without challenges. Several individuals have faced penalties for spreading misinformation or discriminatory remarks related to the reorganization. Authorities have acted decisively to maintain public order and trust, emphasizing the importance of accurate information and legal compliance.
In parallel, the Vietnam Fatherland Front (MTTQ) and socio-political organizations are undergoing their own restructuring to align with the new administrative framework. On June 14, 2025, a training conference addressed the organization and activities of the MTTQ and socio-political bodies at provincial and communal levels under the new model. Nguyen Thi Thu Ha, Vice President and General Secretary of the Central Committee of MTTQ, elaborated on recent directives and organizational principles.
The MTTQ maintains its role as a political alliance and voluntary union of organizations and social strata, operating on principles of voluntariness, democratic consultation, coordination, and unified action. New regulations clarify that while socio-political organizations retain relative independence—with their own congresses, charters, legal status, and financial autonomy—they are "subordinate" to the MTTQ in terms of Party organization, personnel management, and funding coordination.
Heads of socio-political organizations at all levels will serve concurrently as Vice Presidents of corresponding MTTQ Committees, ensuring integrated leadership. Provincial-level MTTQ Congresses, held every five years, will elect committees comprising 90-120 members, representing diverse societal groups. These congresses follow Party Congresses to maintain leadership consistency.
At the communal level, new MTTQ committees will be elected with 50-70 members, supported by advisory agencies responsible for coordinating with socio-political organizations and managing mass mobilization efforts. Staffing and organizational structures have been designed to balance continuity and flexibility, with current deputy head numbers maintained initially and adjusted after five years.
The MTTQ and socio-political organizations also oversee the coordination and management of mass organizations assigned by the Party and State, streamlining overlapping functions and consolidating ineffective bodies. This reorganization aims to strengthen the comprehensive leadership of Party Committees at all levels over these organizations, ensuring unity and efficiency.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh underscored that the reorganization of the political system and local governments is a "revolution" demanding determination, decisiveness, unity, and synchronization across all sectors. The reforms are a necessary evolution to meet the demands of national development and modernization.
Vietnam’s ongoing administrative and political reforms represent a concerted effort to build a modern, efficient, and responsive governance system. While challenges persist—ranging from personnel management issues to combating misinformation—the overwhelming consensus within the Party, government, and populace reflects a shared commitment to progress. Recognition of provinces like Quang Ninh as centrally-run cities symbolizes the tangible outcomes of these reforms, promising enhanced socio-economic development and governance capacity in the years ahead.
