Vietnam's communist government plans to cut one in five public sector jobs over the next five years as part of a sweeping effort to streamline its bureaucracy.

On Tuesday, the country’s parliament approved a reduction in the number of ministries from 18 to 14. The rubber-stamp National Assembly also approved two new deputy prime ministers, bringing the total to seven.

According to the government, around 100,000 employees will either be made redundant or offered early retirement.

As part of the restructure, state-owned media organizations, the civil service, the police and the military will face cuts. The ministries of transport, planning and investment, communications and labor have all been scrapped.

The planning and investment ministry, which approves foreign investment projects, will join the finance ministry, while the transport ministry and the construction ministry will be merged. The natural resources and environment ministry and the agriculture ministry will also be merged.

Such moves are not unprecedented in Vietnam, which steadily reduced the number of ministries from 36 in the early 1990s to 22 by 2021.

However, analysts note that the scale and pace of the reforms are vast, with the general secretary of the Communist Party, To Lam, referring to the process as an institutional "revolution."

The primary goals are "modernizing Vietnam's state apparatus, tackling persistent inefficiencies that impede governance and economic growth, and streamlining a bloated bureaucracy," said Nguyen Khac Giang, a visiting fellow at........

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