"Vietnam is one of the few countries in the world with the rapid speed of urbanisation, particularly in big cities. The shortcomings of this transition will entail major changes in economic restructuring, labour, infrastructure and transportation, power, and water. But these changes are underestimated by leaders from the central to local levels", said Mr Do Viet Chien, Director of the Urban Management Department, Ministry of Construction, on the sidelines of the workshop on "Urban leadership in city management" held recently in Hanoi.
Could you please tell us about the process of evolution of urbanisation in Vietnam?
According to the authorities, Vietnam is now in the stage of rapid urbanisation, as of now, the rate of urbanisation has reached 35.5 percent; the country has 779 cities and urban areas, contributing over 70 percent of GDP. This is an important driving force to promote growth, economic restructuring, and jobs of the local regions.
Besides, the lax management of the urban management occurs frequently. Specifically, the construction without permission still occurs. The disclosure of urban planning of public places is not strictly implemented. This affects the reputation of the whole industry. Vietnam's urban system is still fragment and spontaneous. The goal is to reduce the gap between big cities and small towns. Currently, the number of big cities only accounts for 20 percent and in the future, it is necessary to encourage the development of small urban centres.
The fact shows that at present, there are more and more illegal building activities in urban areas. How should this situation be handled?
According to experts, one of the difficulties in the process of urbanisation today is to handle works without a permits or illegal works. That poses challenges to managers, especially in the field of management of urban development. Particularly, the apartment at 8B Le Truc, Hanoi is a typical example. And if we seriously comply with Decree No. 11/2013/ND-CP issued on investment management urban development, the troubles related to inspection after construction will be avoided. Accordingly, the Decree requires an establishment of a regional management unit of urban development and another unit formed by the State and directly run by the province or the city. This board is responsible for managing and handing over projects as scheduled. Specifically, during the planning and deployment of the project, this committee shall examine the implementation progress of the project to sort out the illegal projects. The illegal projects under the control of the province will be handled immediately while others will be reported to superiors for further processing. In my opinion, if we take controls over the projects before construction as regulated in Decree 11, the illegal projects will be avoided.
What do you think about serious floods occurring frequently in big cities like Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City?
All knows that the weather is hardly forecastable. Although floods in major urban centres of Vietnam have consumed a lot of economic resources and efforts of the authorities, the situation has not been thoroughly treated. However, the general planning of urban development identifies core position basin and drainage before constructing large drainage channels and reservoirs to direct the water flows. Also, the general plan will count into the areas where pumping stations are located to kick off urgent pumping in the case the drainages are overloaded. Besides, the drainage flows will be marked by protected corridors and noticed to the public, which helps the people handle themselves under emergency. However, many ponds as main flows of the cities are occupied, leading the flooding whenever heavy rains come.
Another technical issue is that licensing a construction work requires the authorities to take consideration into core characteristics of the project. Therefore, the licensing must specify that the works behind are lower than the front; however, many problems happen in practice, leading the flow of waters to be blocked. This is the main reason leading to local flooding frequently occurred in our large urban centres.
What should Vietnam do to have a smart and sustainable urban development?
As calculated, the urban planning requires urban land of 400,000 hectares in 2015 and 450,000 hectares in 2025 (1.4 percent of the areas of country). This is a huge challenge in the context of Vietnam to respond to severe affects of rising sea levels. To overcome this challenge, the urban development should be vertical rather than horizontal as now when the urban areas are expanded while the urban land is untapped.
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