On the morning of January 11, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Phan Van Mai chaired a conference to summarize the activities of neighborhoods, hamlets, residential groups, and people's groups in the period 1975-2025 and met with ward leaders implementing the arrangement of administrative units. The meeting aimed to express gratitude and honor the working force in residential groups and people's groups, and listen to ward leaders present the advantages and difficulties in the process of arranging administrative units.

"The city would like to acknowledge, honor and express gratitude to the cadres of residential groups, people's groups, hamlets and neighborhoods who have been attached to Ho Chi Minh City for the past 50 years. With tens of thousands of cadres at the grassroots level contributing their feelings, enthusiasm and efforts to make Ho Chi Minh City what it is today," the Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee expressed.

Mr. Phan Van Mai shared that the rearrangement of neighborhood and hamlet activities, and the cessation of organizing residential groups and people's groups does not mean that the previous model is not suitable or effective, but that this work is being carried out by Ho Chi Minh City according to the general policy. Since 1975, residential groups and people's groups have been very effective, helping the city manage the area well and making an important contribution to the stable development of Ho Chi Minh City.

The head of the Ho Chi Minh City government requested that leaders of districts, towns, and Thu Duc City continue to pay attention to the lives and arrange new jobs for the cadres of residential groups and people's groups. For those who are no longer involved in the work, each locality needs to focus on taking care of their health and spirit so that retired cadres can continue to accompany and contribute to Ho Chi Minh City with the experience of previous generations.

Regarding the arrangement of commune-level administrative units, Ho Chi Minh City has recently reorganized from 80 wards to 41 wards, a reduction of 39 wards compared to before. The Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee said that the arrangement and merger of wards will affect a significant number of cadres, civil servants, public employees, and non-professional workers.

"We know that there are ward secretaries who have to move to become deputy secretaries, ward chairmen who have to become vice chairmen after the arrangement, and there are also people who have to change jobs. These are inevitable things when the city carries out the arrangement of administrative units, the apparatus, and the staff. We hope that each individual will share and thank them for accepting the disadvantages and sacrifices for the common work of the city," said the Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee.

In the coming time, the responsibility of Ho Chi Minh City and localities is to review and arrange suitable jobs for affected people in the shortest time. The re-arranged ward must ensure better and more stable operations, create better working conditions for officials and better serve the people and businesses.

"HCMC has experience in merging 3 districts to form Thu Duc City. The compensation committee on one side merged with the other side, sometimes it took a whole year to integrate the working methods with each other. At the ward level, if it is for the common work of the locality, we will overcome it. If we still raise the issue of "my interests - your interests", the operation cannot be good and the goals will not be achieved after the arrangement", Mr. Phan Van Mai emphasized.

The Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee also requested that wards need to effectively use public assets after the reorganization, avoiding waste and loose management leading to violations and loss of assets. The new ward apparatus needs to proactively handle arising issues to stabilize, create new momentum, complete the tasks of 2025, and prepare mentally to start a new term.