Kiên Hải, formerly a district in the southern province of An Giang, becomes a special administrative zone following the administrative restructuring on July 1, 2025. — VNA/VNS Photo Văn Sĩ

HÀ NỘI — Phan Trung Tuấn, Director of the Department of Local Government under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA), said on Monday that there is no plan to merge localities down to 16, as he addressed online claims regarding provincial-level restructuring.

“The information circulating online claiming that the number of cities and provinces will be reduced from 34 to 16 is completely false,” he said.

At the ninth session of the National Assembly in June, a resolution was passed to reorganise provincial administrative units, bringing the total number of localities in Việt Nam from 63 to 34 – comprising 28 provinces and six centrally-run cities.

The new administrative structure, along with the two-tier local government model, officially came into effect on July 1.

Tuấn added that the MoHA was drafting a decree guiding public consultations for the establishment, dissolution, merger, division, adjustment of administrative boundaries and renaming of administrative units. This document would replace the older Decree 54/2018/NĐ-CP and Decree 66/2023/NĐ-CP, which do not reflect the new administrative structure.

The new decree would not include any further plan to reduce the number of cities and provinces across the country from 34 to 16, as falsely circulated on social media recently.

The document was being drafted in accordance with the 2025 Law on Organisation of Local Government and the Prime Minister’s Decision No 1589/QĐ-TTg on the implementation plan for this law, Tuấn stressed.

He noted that the recent administrative restructuring was a historic and strategic step, marking a new stage in administrative reform, the improvement of institutions and the organisation of a streamlined, efficient political system.

In addition to streamlining organisational structures, reducing staffing levels and optimising budget expenditures for the administrative apparatus while creating new room and opportunities for local development, Tuấn noted that these major changes aimed to ensure long-term stability of the administrative system with better delegation of power to local authorities.— VNS