Hanoi Proposes Merger of 25 Districts in 5 Quarters, Will Residents Need to Update Their ID Cards?

In recent days, information about the merger of local administrative units in provinces and cities across the country has attracted the attention of people.

According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, up to now, 56 out of 56 provinces and cities with districts and communes in the phase of rearrangement from 2023 to 2025 have sent their overall plans to the Ministry of Home Affairs. The Ministry has given opinions on the implementation of the overall plan of these 56 localities.

In Hanoi, the city has developed an overall plan to rearrange district and commune-level administrative units for submission to the Ministry of Home Affairs for approval.

Accordingly, 25 wards in 5 districts including Dong Da, Hai Ba Trung, Thanh Xuan, Ha Dong and Long Bien are expected to be merged due to not meeting the criteria for area and population.

Specifically:

– Dong Da district will reduce two wards, merging Kham Thien and Trung Phung wards; merging Nga Tu So ward into Khuong Thuong and Thinh Quang wards; merging Trung Tu ward into Phuong Lien and Kim Lien wards.

– Ha Dong district will reduce two wards by merging Yet Kieu, Nguyen Trai and Quang Trung into a new ward.

– Hai Ba Trung district will reduce three wards after merging Dong Nhan and Dong Mac, Quynh Loi with Bach Khoa and Thanh Nhan.

– Long Bien district will reduce one ward by merging Sai Dong into Phuc Dong and Phuc Loi. Thanh Xuan district will reduce two wards by merging Thanh Xuan Bac and Thanh Xuan Nam, Ha Dinh into Kim Giang ward.

– In the suburban districts, Ung Hoa has the largest reduction in the number of communes, merging 14 communes into 5 communes (reducing 9 communes); Thuong Tin, Dan Phuong and Quoc Oai also reduce 4 communes each.

– Son Tay town reduces 2 wards: merging Le Loi and Ngo Quyen wards and Quang Trung ward into a new ward.

After the rearrangement, the city will have 30 district-level administrative units (17 districts, 12 urban districts, one town) and is expected to have 509 commune-level administrative units (321 communes, 168 wards, 20 townships), the current number of wards and communes is 579.

Therefore, after the rearrangement, 70 commune-level administrative units will be reduced.

At the first meeting of the Steering Committee for the implementation of the rearrangement of district and commune-level administrative units in the period of 2023-2030 on February 28, representatives of some central ministries and agencies discussed some contents, including those related to changing identification papers due to changes in the arrangement of administrative units, which attracted the attention of people.

In this regard, representatives of the Ministry of Public Security stated that when rearranging administrative boundaries with changes in names. Data will be collected, cleaned and regularly updated. Therefore, when there is a resolution of the National Assembly Standing Committee, these data will be updated and supplemented by local police forces. Some personal information will change, so the population data system will need to be updated. According to the representative of the Ministry of Public Security, this task is slightly difficult but can be carried out.

Regarding regulations, citizens are not required to change their identity cards. However, for the convenience of administrative transactions, the Ministry of Public Security recommends that people should change their identity cards according to the new place names.

This change of identity cards will be completely free of charge.