The draft law boosts proactivity in management
The draft Urban Development Law currently before the National Assembly marks a significant shift in Vietnam's legislative mindset, moving from a strict management approach toward development facilitation and differentiated governance. It aims to eliminate structural bottlenecks in major cities and activate new growth poles.
Institutionalizing the Politburo's Conclusion No. 18-KL/TW and Resolution No. 09-NQ/TW, the draft is expected to act as a catalyst for major cities to accelerate economic growth toward double-digit targets. It reorganizes development space into multi-polar, integrated, and connected networks, forming regional and global competitive economic zones and growth poles.
The draft goes beyond decentralization by enabling cities to issue normative legal documents differing from central government regulations in specific cases and to pilot novel policies. This breakthrough expands decentralized models from specific localities, such as Hanoi under the Capital Law, to special urban areas, other cities, and special economic zones.
Notable highlights include the decentralized promulgation of special normative documents, which authorizes city people's councils and people's committees to issue legal documents detailing and guiding the implementation of laws and resolutions that differ from central government regulations, or when new practical issues lack legal coverage.
Controlled sandboxes allow cities to proactively pilot new policies and development models in digital economics, digital assets, artificial intelligence, finance, night-time economy, and low-emission agriculture.
Additionally, the priority application principle establishes that provisions of the Urban Development Law take precedence over other laws and resolutions of the National Assembly on the same issue, excluding national defense and security, while city people's councils may also decide to apply subsequent mechanisms if they offer greater incentives or advantages.
New provisions successfully balance innovation with power control
To encourage innovation while ensuring accountability and power control, the draft introduces robust safeguards. Decentralization must align with the Constitution and international treaties without harming national defense, security, foreign affairs, human rights, social equity, or macroeconomic stability.
Before issuing distinct legal documents, cities must evaluate necessity, rationality, policy impacts, monitoring mechanisms, and accountability, alongside public consultations, with simplified procedures barred except for suspending or revoking documents.
Pilot policies must clearly define objectives, scopes, timelines of a maximum of 5 years extendable by up to 5 years, and expected results. If negative impacts exceed forecasts, the city people's committee must suspend the pilot. Furthermore, clear responsibilities are established for reporting special documents to central authorities within 7 days, evaluating effectiveness after 1 year, and protecting dynamic, creative officials who dare to think and act for the common good.
Enhanced capacity is needed for policy absorption
If passed, the vast delegation of authority to local governments will sharply increase workloads. Maintaining current staffing levels would place immense pressure on local administration, especially regarding the operational structure of people's councils.
For instance, Ho Chi Minh City is currently drafting roughly 100 detailed regulatory documents to deploy immediately once the law takes effect. While proactive, relying indefinitely on peak workloads strains public servants and limits deep policy research.
Over the long term, prioritizing special mechanisms for organizational structure, personnel, and finance is critical. A fitting apparatus and high-quality workforce will elevate policy absorption capacity, successfully transforming delegated powers into concrete and sustainable development results.
