In November 2024, General Secretary To Lam announced the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) would be taking a renewed interest in resolution 18-NQ/TW 2017. Dubbed the “Streamlining Revolution”, the resolution proposes the downsizing and streamlining of the CPV, the Vietnamese Government, and the State.
As of April 15th, the reform has been set in motion, with the Vietnamese Government approving a plan to reduce the number of provinces and centrally-run cities from 63 to 34.
The plan details the merging and re-organisation of almost every province and centrally-run city in the country, with the only exceptions being Ha Noi, Hue City, Lai Chau Province, Dien Bien Province, Son La Province, Lang Son Province, Quang Ninh Province, Thanh Hoa Province, Nghe An Province, Ha Tinh Province and Cao Bang Province.
Doi Moi 2.0
This series of reforms promises to be the most ambitious and wide-reaching since the Doi Moi reforms of 1986. The Streamlining Revolution targets all 4 branches of Vietnam's administrative bureaucracy, with the State and Government being primarily affected. A first in modern Vietnamese history, where previous initiatives were aimed at reforming specific parts of the state apparatus, and generally increased the number of agencies and officials.
Governmental expansion created an environment of overlapping jurisdictions and regulatory complexity, as well as a breeding ground for corruption. These conditions are unsustainable to the CPV’s ambition of turning Vietnam into a high-income economy by 2045.
The Streamlining Revolution comes as part of General Secretary To Lam’s vision for the future of Vietnam, focused on economic development and international cooperation. To this end, a simplification of administrative processes and a hardline campaign on official corruption have been key points of his political ambition.
The Mega-Merge
The most important proposed reform, beyond the re-organisation of Vietnam’s provinces and localities, is the reduction in the number of ministries and government-controlled agencies from 30 to 22.
Additionally, the intermediate level of agencies is expected to face the largest number of changes, with up to 941 directorates, department and ministry-supervised government entities, as well as all general directorates slated for elimination.
This amounts to each ministry cutting intermediate layers by approximately 90%. The National Assembly is also set to slash the number of committees by almost half, from 10 to 6.
At the local level, provincial and district governments will align their structure to that of the central government. In practice, this translates to 37 districts and 1,178 communes being consolidated by 2025.
Law enforcement and military are also set for streamlining. Most notably, the elimination of district-level police forces (705 units). This aims to cut the intermediary layer of policing by reassigning district-level officials to commune-level positions, providing the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) with greater influence at the grassroots level of law enforcement.
Mass Streamlining
The Streamlining Revolution was proposed to tackle Vietnam’s sizable bureaucratic apparatus. Nearly 8% of the Vietnamese workforce is employed by the administration, the highest proportion in Southeast Asia.
In the short term (six months), these reforms are expected to make around 100,000 people redundant. This is equal to the number of employees “streamlined” during a 6 year period from 2017 to 2023. In the long term, the government has stated its desire to reduce its workforce by 20%, or around 400,000 people.
These reforms mirror General Secretary To Lam’s policy during his time as Minister of Public Security: in 2018, reforms he initiated saw up to 30,500 police personnel laid off. This came as part of his hardline stance on corruption, a conviction he has carried into the offices of both President and General Secretary.
The Bottleneck
With the reforms still underway, their final impact and execution remains to be seen. The sheer scale of the proposed reforms is the chief obstacle to their feasibility, particularly because the individuals targeted for redundancy often hold the necessary powers to delay such a procedure and re-assign themselves to more favorable positions.
However, considering the government’s hardline stance on bureaucratic corruption and the pressing economic imperative in the wake of Trump’s tariffs, the government is expected to move with speed and brutal efficiency.