HCMC – The Government will cut the number of ministries and ministerial-level agencies from 30 to 21 in a major political system shakeup endorsed by the Party Central Committee.
The restructuring plan is aimed at eliminating redundancies and improving the efficiency of ministries and ministrial agencies, Minister of Home Affairs Pham Thi Thanh Tra told the Vietnam News Agency.
The Ministry of Planning and Investment will merge with the Ministry of Finance to form a new ministry, potentially called the Ministry of Finance and Development Investment or the Ministry of Economic Development.
The Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Construction will be combined into a Ministry of Infrastructure and Urban Development, while the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment will be merged with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to create a Ministry of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment.
Other key changes include the merger of the Ministry of Information and Communications with the Ministry of Science and Technology, resulting in a new ministry, which may be called the Ministry of Digital Transformation, Science and Technology, or the Ministry of Digital Transformation, Science, Technology, and Information.
The Ministry of Labor, War Invalids, and Social Affairs will be consolidated with the Ministry of Home Affairs, establishing the Ministry of Home Affairs and Labor. Specific functions of the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids, and Social Affairs, including vocational education, will be transferred to the Ministry of Education and Training.
The Ministry of Health will handle social welfare, child protection, and social vice control, which are now under the management of the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids, and Social Affairs.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will assume the primary responsibilities of the Party Central Committee’s External Relations Commission and the National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs Committee upon the termination of their operations.
The Government will also undertake restructuring several agencies, including the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences and the Vietnam National University’s campuses in Hanoi and HCMC.
The overhaul will slash 15-20% of the Government’s internal organizational units, excluding the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Defense which will be restructured separately as per Politburo decisions.
The Government proposed dissolving its Party Civil Affairs Committee and establishing a Government Party Committee under the PCC. This new organization will oversee the Party organizations of ministries, ministerial-level agencies, state-owned enterprises and state-run commercial banks.
