ALIN Legislative News
From Hanoi Law University
Vietnam: Constitutional Amendment
(2013) and the Legal Framework for Government System Restructuring
Since late
2024, the Politburo has enacted seven strategic resolutions impacting nearly
all crucial areas of the country. These comprehensive guidelines demonstrate
the Party's reformed mindset, long-term vision, and strong political resolve.
The strategies are the essential foundation for Vietnam to stride forward and
achieve a wealthy and prosperous development in the new era. At the central
level, the government plans to reduce the total number of ministries and
ministry-level agencies from 22 to 17 (a reduction of 5). This reduction will
be achieved by merging a number of existing ministries, such as Ministry of
Planing and Investment and Ministry of Finance.
The 1st
July 2025 was the turning point of Vietnam through carrying out restructuring
local government system. Local govement have been changed significanly from
three levels to two levels struture including provincial and commune level. After
restructuring, the number of provinces reduced from 63 to 34 provinces, and the
number of communes and wards across 34 provinces and centrally-run cities after
mergers is 3,211 communes. In addition, the court system also changed in
accordance with the administrative boundery merging. After merging, the number
of district courts was reduced dramatically. Due to the abolishment of the
district level, the district courts emerged as regional courts, and the 3 High
Courts were abolished.
Amending Constitution
2013 and other related laws are essential for building comprehensive legal
grounds for this reforming. For instance, Article 111 was amended as follows: “1.
Administrative divisions of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam are organized
into two levels. First-level administrative divisions are provinces and
central-affiliated cities, each of which is subdivided into multiple
second-level administrative divisions as prescribed by law.” (Resolution No.
203/2025/QH15 dated 16 June 2025). The 9th session of the 15th National
Assembly recently approved 34 new laws and amended laws. Recently, the
President also issued an Order on 15 laws and 1 ordinance; for example Penal
Code (enacted 25 June 2025); Criminal Proceeding Code (enacted 26 June 2025);
Law on Public Servant (24 June 2025); Law on Enterprise (17 June 2026); Law on
Promulgation of Legal Normative Documents; Law on Organization of People’s
Courts; Law on Organization of People’s Procuracy; Law on Local Government
(etc).
Reducing the number of public sectors and public servants have been identified
as one of the key sollutions for saving state budget as well as building more
effective, efficient government system.
On October
3, 2025, the Government issued Resolution No. 303/NQ-CP on solutions for
effective implementation of two-level local government according to the
Conclusion of the Politburo and the Secretariat. The Resolution clearly stated
that the Government unanimously assessed: After 3 months of implementing the
operation of two-level local government, it has basically met the set goals and
achieved positive results, contributing to improving the effectiveness and
efficiency of operations, creating favorable conditions for people,
organizations and businesses in the area. However, there are still many issues
that need to be fully and specifically identified and solutions to remove
difficulties and obstacles for localities. To ensure the local government
apparatus operates effectively, better serving the people, organizations, and
businesses while strongly promoting socio-economic development, Vietnam must
focus on reviewing and amending regulations that are unsuitable for the 2-level
local government structure as one of the urgent tasks.
Consequently, Vietnam's legal system has undergone significant changes, aiming
to achieve prosperous development in the new era.
Author:
by Phan Thi Lan Huong, Hanoi Law University
Topic: Government Restructuring
Jurisdiction: Vietnam