As part of broader institutional reforms in 2024 and 2025, the Communist Party and Government of Vietnam announced the Plan to Arrange and Merge Administrative Units (). As part of the re-organisation, the district level of units is to be eliminated and the number of local government units at the provincial and communal levels are to be reduced by around 50%. A constitutional amendment will be required to eliminate the district level of local authorities. It is also considered a transition period to revise the Vietnamese constitution and legal system. On 1 July 2025, Vietnam implemented its most extensive administrative reform in decades, merging 63 provinces and cities down to 34 first-level subdivisions and eliminating the district level entirely.
Beginning on 5 November 2024, state media began announcing major structural reforms of the bureaucracy. On that date, the Communist Review, an official publication of the Communist Party of Vietnam, published an article titled (roughly translated as Sharp, compact, strong ; High-performance, effective, efficient) credited to General Secretary Tô Lâm, in which he proclaimed the general strategic direction of the upcoming reforms.
Billed as "a revolution in streamlining the apparatus of the political system" (), the reform aims to remove overlapping areas of responsibility between different agencies and levels of government, distinguishing between levels of government responsible for the formulation and implementation of policy, and reassessing public sector employees in number and quality based on measurables. Particularly pertinent to the organisation of local government is the slogan "Locals decide, locals do, locals take responsibility" ().
In December 2024, plans were announced to merge several ministries and ministry-level agencies, with provinces following suit in merging their corresponding provincial-level departments. These reforms were enacted into law by the National Assembly in February 2025 and came into force in March of the same year.
As late as mid-February, the Minister of Home Affairs denied plans for provincial mergers, with the National Assembly continuing to debate changes to the Law on the organisation of local government without any consideration of eliminating the district level. Discussion revolved mainly around the elimination or retention of commune-level people's councils. The rural-district level was only due to be abolished for the police forces. On 19 February, state media began announcing that the Politburo had requested the consideration of eliminating the rural-district level of government and merging "some" provinces.
According to the Ministry of Home Affairs has proposed merging districts that do not meet the criteria for area and demography. On February 18, 2025, the Ministry of Home Affairs issued Decision 73/QÃÂâÂÂBNV regarding the Program of practicing thrift and combating wastefulness by the Ministry of Home Affairs for 2025. However, just before the start of the 2025 New Year holidays, the top state bodies announced the first program of reforms. The campaign began with the merger or dissolution of a series of state agencies, which were considered inefficient and wasteful of budget funds.
This has led to the dismissal of thousands of government employees who failed to meet work performance standards. In addition, the arrangement and merger at the provincial-level also takes into account geographical conditions, socio-economic level, and infrastructure.
On February 21, the Government of Vietnam issued Declaration on Vietnam's baselines in the Gulf of Tonkin and immediately submitted to the United Nations a depository copy of the nautical chart and coordinates of the baselines in the Gulf of Tonkin. The event, although causing outrage in the People's Republic of China, is seen as a stepping stone for efforts to reform Vietnam's already troubled administrative unit system.
After the 2025 Lunar New Year, on February 22, with Concludes 126 and 127, the Politburo and the Central Secretariat announced a number of proposals on merging administrative units.
Among them, the plan for a government with only three levels received high consensus. Six days later, the Politburo and the Secretariat officially announced the policy of eliminating rural districts (), then merging communes () and finally merging provinces ().
In response to this directive, localities were required to suspend all elections and not build new government buildings to save their budgets. Under this criterion, the number of communes and provinces in Vietnam will begin to be reduced by 1/5 (commune) to 1/2 (province), with completion by May 2025 at the latest.
From March 7 to 17, 2025, the Government and the Fatherland Front gradually announced plans to cut personnel and eliminate ineffective agencies in localities, stressing the implementation must ensure caution, thoroughness and quality. It also stated its focus on receiving opinions from the Politburo at the meeting on March 7, 2025, completing the submission and project for arrangement and reorganization of administrative units at all levels, and building a model for organizing local governments to ensure adequate political, legal basis and praxis in implementing. However, this move was criticized by many domestic and international media outlets for a lack of transparency.
On March 14, 2025, the Politburo and the National Assembly began a meeting, which is said to be the longest in its history, lasting until May. This event was to prepare for the official list of administrative units after the rearrangement and merger.
Prime Minister Phạm Minh ChÃÂnh announced on March 11, 2025 an August 30 deadline for the reforms, to allow the new administrative units to take effect by September 1.
Based on Resolution 1211 enacted by the Standing Committee of the National Assembly of Vietnam in 2016, the Ministry of Home Affairs officially announced the list of province-level administrative units subject to merging because they did not meet population, economic and infrastructural standards on March 26, 2025. In addition, the government also encouraged provinces to name new communes in order number.
Therefore, 34 new localities are expected: HàNá»Âi, Huế, Lai Châu, ÃÂiá»Ân Biên, Sán La, Lạng Sán, Quảng Ninh, Thanh Hóa, Nghá» An, HàTénh, Cao Bằng, Tuyên Quang, Lào Cai, Thái Nguyên, Phú Thá»Â, Bắc Ninh, Hðng Yên, Hải Phòng, Ninh Bình, Quảng Trá»Â, ÃÂàNẵng, Quảng Ngãi, Gia Lai, Khánh Hòa, Lâm ÃÂá»Âng, ÃÂắk Lắk, Há» ChàMinh, ÃÂá»Âng Nai, Tây Ninh, Cần Thá, Vénh Long, ÃÂá»Âng Tháp, CàMau, An Giang. In addition, 13 island districts will be transformed into special zones under their respective provinces: Bạch Long Vé, Cát Hải, Cá»Ân Cá»Â, Côn ÃÂảo, Cô Tô, Hoàng Sa, Lý Sán, Kiên Hải, Phú Quá»Âc, Phú Quý, Thá» Châu, Trðá»Âng Sa, Vân ÃÂá»Ân.
According to Resolution 60âÂÂNQ/TW on April 12, 2025 of the 11th Conference of the XIII Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam, the country will be divided into 6 key economic regions: Northern Midlands and Mountains, Red River Delta, North-Central and Central Coastal, Western Highlands, Southeast, Mekong River Delta.
On April 14, 2025, Lê Minh Hðng â Member of the Politburo, Secretary of the Party Central Committee, Head of the Central Organizing Committee and Deputy Head of the Standing Committee of the Central Steering Committee (Steering Committee) â on the review of Resolution 18âÂÂNQ/TW (October 25, 2017 of the Communist Party Central Committee (XII term) some issues on continuing to renovate and organize the streamlined political system of the entire political system. 47âÂÂKH/BCD (Plan 47) of the Steering Committee on the arrangement and merger of the provincial and commune-level administrative units and organize the 2-level local government system.
The project clearly stated the implementation of Resolution 60âÂÂNQ/TW, dated 12 April, 2025, of the XIII Communist Party Central Committee on continuing to re-organize the organizational structure of the political system. In order for the implementation to ensure the proposed schedule, achieve the streamlined, performance, effective and effective goals associated with the successful organization of the Party Congress at all levels to the XIV National Party Congress of the XIV Party, the Central Steering Committee on the review of Resolution 18 (hereinafter referred to as the Steering Committee) promulgates the Plan to arrange and merge the administrative unit at the provincial and commune authorities.
Plan 47 clearly stated the requirements, the Party committees, party organizations, agencies, units and heads:
Also according to Plan 47, the Central Organizing Committee shall assume the prime responsibility and coordinate with the concerned committees, agencies and units to help the Steering Committee:
Since the beginning of 2023, Vietnamese public opinion has been very interested in issues that are often thought to be the secret of the Government and the Communist Party of Vietnam, which is revealed by global reliable sources such as BBC, RFA, RFI, VOA and especially ThoiBao.de, a non-mainstream information channel run by Vietnamese persons in Berlin. Therefore, this general institutional reform is considered to be only aimed at eliminating district-level military agencies, which is often thought to be the main potential of the military faction (or Nghá»ÂâÂÂTénh sect) in the government. It is also part of the program to acquire power for the Hðng Yên sect before the XIV National Congress of the Vietnam Communist Party in January 2026, the event will surely determine Vietnam's most important positions in the next 10 years.