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Huỳnh Kha wrote this Vietnamese article, published in Luat Khoa Magazine on Mar. 5, 2025. Thúc Kháng translated it into English for The Vietnamese Magazine.

During his tenure as the Minister of Public Security (MPS), the current General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV), To Lam, already enacted major reforms by reducing the mid-level staff while expanding grassroots personnel. Now, as he is already the top leader of the CPV, his influence is being carried out more thoroughly and rapidly to shape the MPS.

Five Additional Functions The massive overhaul of Vietnam’s bureaucracy began in late 2024, leading to an entire revamp of the country’s political system. Every government agency has undergone internal reorganization and staff reductions, with some sectors taking on additional responsibilities from other units. Notably, the MPS has been granted five of the seven new functions it proposed.

On Jan. 11, 2025, the Ministry of Home Affairs submitted Report No. 219/BC-BNV, proposing adjustments to the streamlining and restructuring government agencies. As part of this process, the MPS suggested taking on two additional functions: border and checkpoint security and immigration — involving coordination with the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of Justice, and other relevant agencies.

Subsequently, on Feb. 28, 2025, the MPS unveiled its new organizational structure under Government Decree No. 02/2025. News outlets widely reported on its expanded state management functions, which now include:

Information Security : Previously overseen by the Ministry of Information and Communications, this responsibility has been transferred to the MPS's Cybersecurity and High-Tech Crime Prevention Department. Aviation Security : Previously overseen by the Ministry of Transport, this responsibility has been transferred to the MPS's Immigration Management Department. Drug Rehabilitation and Post-Rehabilitation Management : Previously managed by the Ministry of Labor, Invalids, and Social Affairs, this responsibility has been transferred to the Drug Crime Investigation Police Department of the MPS. Driver’s License Testing and Issuance : Previously handled by the Ministry of Transport, this responsibility has been transferred to the Traffic Police Department of the MPS. Judicial Records and Certificates : Previously handled by the Ministry of Justice, this responsibility has been transferred to the MPS's Criminal Records Management Department. Mobifone Officially Placed Under the MPS With the issuance of Government Dispatch No. 233 on Feb. 27, 2025, Mobifone has been officially placed under the jurisdiction of the MPS. The ministry has become Mobifone’s state-owner representative, replacing the now defunct State Capital Management Committee, which had been merged into the Ministry of Finance.

Established on Apr. 16, 1993, Mobifone was Vietnam’s first mobile telecommunications network. Over the years, its ownership and management have changed hands from the Ministry of Information and Communications in December 2014, to the State Capital Management Committee in November 2018.

As a key player in Vietnam’s telecom market, Mobifone holds around 30% of the mobile services market share, alongside Viettel — a state-owned telecommunications enterprise under the Ministry of National Defense — with 56.39%, and the Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) with 20.91%. In 2024, Mobifone reported a consolidated pre-tax profit of approximately 2.048 trillion VND.

In 2016, Mobifone was involved in a high-profile scandal over its 8.9 trillion VND acquisition of a 95% stake in Audio Visual Global (AVG).

The Abolition of District-Level Public Security Forces In recent years, the MPS has undergone constant restructuring under the principle of “comprehensive at the provincial level, strong at the commune level, and deeply entrenched at the grassroots level.”

In 2018, the MPS launched Project 106 to change its organizational structure. Then in 2020, the ministry had removed six general departments, one equivalent-level unit, 55 other departments, 22 provincial fire prevention offices, seven training institutions, and 1,014 department-level units. Additionally, the public security sector cut more than 30,000 personnel.

By 2022, To Lam, the head of the ministry at the time, announced that over 48,000 commune-level police officers had been deployed nationwide, backed by an investment of more than 3.4 trillion VND.

These past initiatives paved the way for Conclusion No. 121 by the Communist Party’s Central Committee, which streamlined Vietnam’s police structure from four levels to three: the ministry, province, district, and commune levels. The system now operates without the district level, leaving only the ministry, province, and commune tiers.

The MPS has been praised for leading this reform. It is expected that by March 2, 2025, police forces in all 63 provinces and cities will operate only at the provincial and commune levels.

It remains unclear where district-level officers will be reassigned. However, the MPS has stated that they will be reallocated according to their specializations, with security officers staying in security roles and police officers in police roles.

The MPS has also cut 694 district - level police units - equivalent to department - level offices - and 5,916 district-level police teams. Additionally, the ministry merged the Security Industry Department and the Institute of Science and Technology into the Security Industry Department.

With this major reform, the number of commune-level police officers has increased from 8 to a minimum of 12. After streamlining, the total number of commune-level police officers nationwide is expected to exceed 127,140.

Furthermore, many administrative procedures previously handled at the district level, such as issuing ID cards and renewing driver’s licenses, will now be transferred to commune-level police stations.

Hanoi Renames District Police Stations as City Police “Facilities” Hanoi has announced that 30 district-level police units will cease operations, transferring their functions to commune and city-level police. However, the stations of these dissolved police units have been renamed as City Police “Facilities.” For instance, the former Hoan Kiem District Police Station is now called the "Hanoi City Police – Hoan Kiem Facility."

On March 1, 2025, Ho Chi Minh City announced the dissolution of district-level police units across 22 districts and Thu Duc City, reducing the number of police divisions from 55 to 33. There is no information on whether their stations will also be renamed.

The Three-Tier Structure of the Public Security Force According to Article 17 of the 2018 Law on the People's Public Security, the organizational structure of the public security force includes: (1) The MPS ; (2) Police from provinces and centrally-run cities; (3) Police from districts, towns, cities under provincial or centrally-run city jurisdiction; and (4) Police from communes, wards, and townships.

The district level has been eliminated from the police structure, leaving only three:

The Ministry Level - including the leadership of the MPS, various departments, the Mobile Police Command, the Guard Command, academies, and training institutions The MPS’s leadership consists of eight people: Minister Luong Tam Quang and seven deputy ministers: Senior Lieutenant General Tran Quoc To (Standing Deputy Minister), Senior Lieutenant General Le Quoc Hung, Lieutenant General Le Van Tuyen, Major General Dang Hong Duc, Lieutenant General Nguyen Van Long, Lieutenant General Pham The Tung, and Lieutenant General Nguyen Ngoc Lam.

The Provincial/Municipal Level - including the directorate, various divisions and departments, provincial police hospitals, and district-level police forces The Commune Level - headed by the commune police chief Decree 42/2021 also gives the Minister of Public Security the authority to establish police stations, outposts, and independent units in necessary areas.

Vague Number of Police Nationwide The number of units and personnel in the public security force is not publicly disclosed. According to Luat Khoa Magazine, the numbers published in the media are often inconsistent.

In an interview with RFA, Professor Carl Thayer from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Canberra estimated that the police force in Vietnam was around 6.7 million in 2008.

In 2020, Thanh Nien newspaper quoted To Lam as saying, " the number of street guards, militia, and part-time commune police is around two million people.”

During a National Assembly session in November 2020, National Assembly delegate Sung Thin Co questioned To Lam about the large size of the current police force, stating that “a province has at least 3,000, and larger provinces have 4,000 regular police officers.”

The MPS Budget According to the 2024 budget resolution from the National Assembly, the MPS had a budget of 113,000 billion VND, an increase of approximately 14,000 billion VND compared to 2023. It ranked second after the Ministry of Defense, which had a budget of 207,000 billion VND. The MPS also received 85% of the total revenue from traffic fines — around 5,307 billion VND — in 2023.

The Revamped Ministry of Public Security under General Secretary To Lam

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