Joining the delegation were Director of the Urban Development Agency, Ministry of Construction Tran Quoc Thai; representatives of departments and agencies under the Ministry of Construction and representatives of departments under the Government Office.

On the side of Bac Giang province, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Le Anh Duong chaired the reception and working session with the delegation. Also attending were representative leaders of relevant departments, sectors and localities.

According to the report, the general planning project of Bac Giang urban expansion to 2045 was approved by the Prime Minister in Decision No. 1685/QD-TTg dated December 26, 2023, orientating to merge the entire existing Yen Dung district into Bac Giang city, the scope of Bac Giang urban planning with the current population of about 363.6 thousand people, an area of 258.3km², including all the administrative boundaries of the existing Bac Giang city (10 wards, 06 communes) and the entire administrative boundaries of Yen Dung district (02 towns and 16 communes).

Through the assessment and classification of Bac Giang urban area (according to the criteria of type II urban areas), Bac Giang urban area had 05 criteria achieving minimum points or higher and the total score of the criteria was 75 points or higher (reaching 91,18/100 points), qualified to be recognized as a class II urban area.

Regarding the results of assessment of areas expected to establish wards, compared with the provisions in Resolution No. 1210/2016/UBTVQH13 dated May 25, 2016 of the National Assembly Standing Committee on urban classification (amended, supplemented in Resolution No. 26/2022/UBTVQH15 dated September 21, 2022), the current assessment status of the area expected to establish 13 wards of Bac Giang City all met from 11 to 13/13 standards or higher.

After the actual survey, at the working session, the delegation gave many additional comments to the "Project for classifying Bac Giang urban areas, Bac Giang province to meet the criteria for class II urban areas". In particular, the members proposed that the Provincial People's Committee should pay attention to a number of contents such as reviewing and carefully calculating the land area criteria for merging a number of administrative units; clearly explaining the issue of merging administrative units; clarifying indicators related to per capita income; adding clarification to the project on Bac Giang's role as the gateway to the Capital region; assessing details of some zoning contents in the project, etc.

Delegation members also proposed that the province should continue to accelerate the progress of the waste power plant investment project; pay attention to building sustainable drainage systems in industrial zones and clusters to ensure urban environmental landscape; cemetery planning and relocation issues should ensure environmental factors, etc.

Speaking at the working session, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Le Anh Duong clarified with the delegation a number of contents related to the planning of Bac Giang province for the 2021 – 2030 period with a vision to 2050. Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee said that in recent years, the urban development problem of Bac Giang province was still slow and not really balanced with neighboring provinces and cities.

Currently, Bac Giang province had had rapid socio-economic development. Urban space and urban appearance was changed, people's lives were improved. However, with the rapid growth of urbanization, the current urban scale was still small with high density. There was no land fund left for urban development, commerce, services, and utilities for the people. Therefore, the issue of urban expansion planning in Bac Giang province in the current period was extremely necessary; a key task in local socio-economic development in the 2021 - 2026 term.

To do that, Bac Giang had invested more than 3 trillion VND in urban development. In particular, the province completed the planning of Viet Yen district-level town and was focusing on doing a good job of planning and adjusting the administrative boundaries of Luc Ngan district, building a planning roadmap for Lang Giang and Hiep Hoa districts to develop into class IV urban areas, etc. Bac Giang province had reported these policies to the National Assembly and been unanimously supported by the people in the province.

Based on the comments, on behalf of the Provincial People's Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Le Anh Duong thanked the attention of the members of the delegation for sharing many enthusiastic opinions on the project. The Provincial People's Committee would absorb and review the shortcomings and promptly direct localities to coordinate with relevant departments and sectors to quickly supplement and complete documents to submit to competent authorities for approval in the coming time.

Concluding the working session, Deputy Minister of Construction Nguyen Tuong Van emphasized that in recent years, Bac Giang had been a locality with a very fast socio-economic development rate, and the province was also the leading locality in the country in planning. Urban expansion in Bac Giang province in the current period was extremely necessary. However, the process of arranging administrative units after merger must create space for development, ensuring the overall development momentum of the urban area.

Deputy Minister Nguyen Tuong Van also noted that in the process of preparing the project, the province had to be an in-depth assessment of urban development; consider the targets and criteria prescribed for urban areas to supplement the legal basis, rigor and feasibility of the project. The province also shall carefully consider the city's administrative units when merging and converting into wards by specially analyzing and clearly explaining in the project.

At the same time, promptly review and supplement indicators being low compared to regulations; standardize data in the project, and soon submit to the Ministry of Construction for consideration and decision to assess the level of infrastructure development of the areas expected to establish wards in Bac Giang urban area; thereby, serving as a basis for organizing voter consultation on the project to merge the administrative boundaries of Yen Dung district with Bac Giang city, arrange commune-level administrative units and establish wards in Bac Giang city in the near future. /.