The Government has approved the Project on rearranging and reorganizing administrative units and building a two-level local government organization model.

Based on the orientation of the Politburo and the Secretariat, the Government has thoroughly researched and perfected multi-dimensionally with innovative thinking, thereby proposing principles for organizing, arranging and reorganizing current commune levels into new commune levels.

Specifically, the whole country will rearrange and reorganize the current commune levels in the direction of eliminating the intermediate level (district level), forming new commune levels, including communes, wards and special zones. Thus, there will no longer be administrative units such as provincial cities, centrally-run cities, towns, districts, counties and townships.

The draft Law on Organization of Local Government amends regulations on dissolution of administrative units of districts, towns, provincial cities, centrally run cities, and towns from July 1.

According to the draft, the People's Council, agencies under the People's Council, People's Committee, Chairman of the People's Committee, specialized agencies under the People's Committee of districts, towns, cities under provinces, cities under centrally run cities, and towns will cease to perform their duties, powers, and activities from July 1, except for the cases specified in Clause 7, Article 51 of this draft Law.

The organization of local government of the town after arrangement and dissolution shall comply with the provisions in Chapter VI of this draft Law.

Currently, the country has 696 district-level administrative units, including 2 cities under the central government (Thu Duc City and Thuy Nguyen City), 85 provincial cities, 52 towns, 49 districts and 508 counties.

Thus, it is expected that from July 1, there will no longer be 696 districts, including many provincial cities and cities under centrally-run cities.

Below are 85 provincial cities that will stop operating from July 1:

Among 85 provincial cities, many provinces are leading in the number of urban areas such as Quang Ninh and Binh Duong with 5 units, followed by Kien Giang and Thai Nguyen provinces...

Some provincial cities were established long ago such as Da Lat (1893), Nam Dinh (1921), Vinh (1963), Viet Tri (1962)... On the contrary, Thuy Nguyen city (Hai Phong), Phu My (Ba Ria - Vung Tau), Hoa Lu (Ninh Binh), Dong Trieu (Quang Ninh)... were all recently established.

The provinces and cities with the most district levels are Hanoi with 30 units, followed by Thanh Hoa, Ho Chi Minh City, Nghe An...

The organization of two-level local government aims at the highest goal of developing the country, expanding development space for new provinces and cities, promoting the leading role of dynamic regions, economic corridors, and growth poles.

The Government's Decision sets out the principles of prioritizing the arrangement of mountainous and delta units with coastal administrative units; harmoniously and reasonably combining adjacent administrative units in line with development orientation requirements to support each other, together promoting economic development after the arrangement and the requirements and orientations for rapid and sustainable development of the country in the new period.

Along with that, the state prioritizes the arrangement of free trade zones, industrial parks and clusters, urban areas, seaports, logistics, reservoirs, hydroelectric dams, etc. within the scope of a commune-level administrative unit to facilitate state management.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/noi-vu/giai-the-cap-huyen-dung-hoat-dong-85-thanh-pho-thuoc-tinh-tu-17-20250416180742535.htm