This article will be permanently flagged as inappropriate and made unaccessible to everyone. Are you certain this article is inappropriate? Excessive Violence Sexual Content Political / Social
Email Address:
Article Id: WHEBN0000407616 Reproduction Date:
Politics portal
Vietnam is divided into 58 provinces (Vietnamese: tỉnh Chữ nôm:省) and 5 municipalities existing at the same level as provinces (thành phố trực thuộc trung ương). The provinces are divided into districts (huyện), provincial cities (thành phố trực thuộc tỉnh), and district-level towns (thị xã), which are subdivided into commune-level towns (thị trấn) or communes (xã). The municipalities are divided into rural districts (huyện) and urban districts (quận), which are subdivided into wards (phường).
Vietnamese provinces are controlled by a People's Council, elected by the inhabitants. The People's Council appoints a People's Committee, which acts as the executive arm of the provincial government. This arrangement is a somewhat simplified version of the situation in Vietnam's national government. Provincial governments are expected to be subordinate to the central government.
The People's Committee is, as mentioned previously, the executive arm of a provincial government, and is responsible for formulating and implementing policy. It may be thought of as the equivalent of a cabinet. The People's Committee will have a Chairman and a Vice-Chairman, and between nine and eleven ordinary members.
According to the census results of April 1, 2009, the population of Vietnam is 85,789,573 people. The most populous top-level administrative unit in Vietnam is Hồ Chí Minh City, one of the five centrally governed cities. It has 7,123,340 people living within its official boundaries. The second most populous administrative unit is the recently expanded Hà Nội with 6,448,837 people. Prior to the expansion of the capital city, this rank belonged to Thanh Hóa with 3,400,239 people. The least populous is Bắc Kạn, a mountainous province in the remote northeast with 294,660 people.[1]
In terms of land area, the largest province is Nghệ An, which runs from the city of Vinh up the wide Sông Cả valley. The smallest is Bắc Ninh, located in the populous Red River Delta region.
See also List of postal codes in Vietnam
The Vietnamese government often groups the various provinces into eight regions. These regions are not always used, and alternative classifications are possible. The regions include:
Northwest (Tây Bắc Bộ) contains four inland provinces in the west of Vietnam's northern part. Two of them border with Laos, and one borders China.
Northeast (Đông Bắc Bộ) contains eleven provinces (many of which are mountainous) that lie to north of the highly populated Red River lowlands.
Red River Delta (Đồng Bằng Sông Hồng) contains nine provinces that are small but populous – based around the Red River, including the national capital Hanoi, and the municipality of Hải Phòng (both of which are independent of any provincial government).
North Central Coast (Bắc Trung Bộ) contains six provinces in the northern half of Vietnam's narrow central part. All provinces in this region stretch from the coast in the east to Laos in the west.
South Central Coast (Nam Trung Bộ) contains eight coastal provinces in the southern half of Vietnam's central part. Vietnam is wider at this point than in the North Central Coast region, so the inland areas are separate provinces. The region also includes the independent municipality of Đà Nẵng.
Central Highlands (Tây Nguyên) contains the five inland provinces (much of whose terrain is mountainous) of south-central Vietnam, mostly inhabited by ethnic minorities, although many Viet people live there as well.
Southeast (Đông Nam Bộ) contains those parts of lowland southern Vietnam which are north of the Mekong Delta. There are seven provinces, plus the independent municipality of Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon).
Mekong Delta (Đồng Bằng Sông Cửu Long) is Vietnam's southernmost region, and contains twelve mostly small but populous provinces in the delta of the Mekong, plus the independent municipality of Cần Thơ. The other name of this region is Southwestern (Tây Nam Bộ).
Cà Mau Province, Kiên Giang Province, Cần Thơ, Bến Tre Province, Long An Province
Hanoi, Provinces of Vietnam, Bắc Ninh Province, Hà Nam Province, Hải Dương Province
Phú Thọ Province, Tuyên Quang Province, Yên Bái Province, Thái Nguyên Province, Red River Delta
Thanh Hóa Province, Nghệ An Province, Hà Tĩnh Province, Quảng Bình Province, Quảng Trị Province
Provinces of Vietnam, Hanoi, Red River Delta, Cần Thơ, Mekong Delta
Tuyên Quang Province, Provinces of Vietnam, Vietnam, Northeast (Vietnam), Bắc Kạn
Bắc Kạn Province, Vietnam, Hà Giang Province, Lạng Sơn Province, Guangxi
Provinces of Vietnam, Vietnam, Central Highlands (Vietnam), Kon Tum Province, Quảng Ngãi Province
Hmong people, Provinces of Vietnam, Vietnam, Northeast (Vietnam), Hanoi