City-regional Governance in Vietnam post Reorganization of the Political System’s Apparatus: Analysis of Prospects, Challenges and Future Research Agenda

Abstract

This article systematizes the understanding and governance of city regions in Vietnam and discusses the prospects and challenges in the context after the reorganization of the political system’s apparatus in 2025. The research utilizes an abductive analysis of policy documents on urban development, and case studies of Hanoi Metropolitan Area and Ho Chi Minh City Metropolitan Area. The discussion results show that the most favorable conditions are progressive thinking and determination in both administrative reform, governance in general and territorial development planning in particular - especially when the reshaping of development space is identified as the lever to drive economic breakthroughs in the coming period. However, there are still major challenges: i) limited and inconsistent understanding of city regions in Vietnam, and ii) impacts on city region governance mechanisms that may lead to overlapping regional identification, and pressure to innovate leadership capacity for local authorities. The article's discussions contribute to clarifying some theoretical and practical issues about city-regions in Vietnam - an urban form that has been receiving much attention in policy, and hopefully will encourage community participation in understanding and building city-regions/metropolitan areas in Vietnam in the future.