AssessmentsJul 2, 2025 | 17:30 GMT

Vietnam's Administrative Overhaul: A New Era of Governance and Investment Conditions
Vietnam's historic administrative restructuring will trigger short-term bureaucratic friction but lays the foundation for leaner administration, fiscal efficiency and improved investment conditions if the government effectively implements the changes over time. On June 30, Vietnam officially rolled out its most significant administrative restructuring in its post-unification history. This followed the National Assembly passing a resolution on June 12 to merge the country's 63 provincial‑level units into 34, now comprising 28 provinces and six centrally governed, provincial-level cities. This reform rests on an earlier April 12 directive from the Central Committee that authorized merging 52 previously existing provinces into 23 new units, the elimination of the entire district level (formerly there were 696 mid-level jurisdictions between province and commune), and a 60-70 % reduction in commune-level units under a new province-commune two‑tier model (with the prior inclusion of the district level constituting a three-tier model). The new local administrations formally assumed full
READ MORE