To make Vinh worthy of being the growth pole of the North Central regionPart 2: "Frustration" in development space
Both Vinh city and Cua Lo town clearly feel the "frustration" of space, which becomes a weakness leading to difficulty in attracting large, dynamic projects to create a breakthrough in development.
Entering the country's Renovation period, Vinh developed rapidly. However, with limited urban space, only about 105km2, cityrIt is very difficult to shoulder the mission of not only being the capital of the province, but also the center of the North Central region. As for Cua Lo, after 30 years of establishment, with an area of less than 30km2, urbantourismThe first sea of the country is "the smallest town in Vietnam in the largest province in the country".cityVinh and Cua Lo town both clearly feel the "stuffy" space, becomingweaknessleading to difficulty in attracting large, dynamic projects to create development breakthroughs.
“The shirt is too tight”
In September 2013, just 2 months after the Politburo issued Resolution No. 26-NQ/TW, dated July 30, 2013 of the Politburo on the direction and tasks for the development of Nghe An province until 2020, Mr. Vo Viet Thanh, who was then a member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee and Chairman of the Provincial Party Inspection Committee, was transferred to hold the position of Secretary of the Vinh City Party Committee. For more than 6 years as the head of the most important local Party Committee of the whole province before retiring in 2019, he was the one who directly led the implementation of many strategies and orientations for the development of Vinh city to realize the vision of the Central and the province for the city.
Looking back at the history of Vinh city, it can be seen that the Central and the province have placed high expectations, demonstrated through the early outlining of development orientation. Conclusion No. 20-KL/TW of the 9th Politburo in 2003 on a number of socio-economic development policies of Nghe An province to 2005 and 2010 mentioned the development of Vinh city. Then, on September 30, 2005, the Prime Minister issued Decision No. 239/2005/QD-TTg approving the Project to develop Vinh city, Nghe An province to become the economic and cultural center of the North Central region. In particular, in 2013, after summarizing 10 years of implementing Conclusion No. 20-KL/TW, the Politburo issued Resolution No. 26-NQ/TW dated July 30, 2013 on the direction and tasks for developing Nghe An province until 2020. This is an extremely important resolution with the expectation of opening up a direction for Nghe An and Vinh city.
For the first time, a Resolution of the Politburo clearly stated the construction of Vinh city into the center of the North Central region in 10 fields including: finance, trade, tourism, science - technology, information technology, high-tech industry, health, culture, sports, education - training and together with Cua Lo to develop into an economic growth pole and spearhead of growth of the province.
Based on Resolution No. 26 of the Politburo, the Prime Minister issued Decision No. 52/QD-TTg dated January 14, 2015 approving the Adjustment of the Master Plan of Vinh city, Nghe An province to 2030, vision to 2050 with a planning scope of up to 250km.2, which is 2.3 times larger than the area of Vinh city at that time; including the entire Vinh city, Cua Lo town and part of Nghi Loc and Hung Nguyen districts. Vinh city is identified as the political, economic, cultural, social center and communication hub of Nghe An province; the growth engine and the solution of important tasks of economic development of Nghe An province and the North Central region; with a population of nearly 1 million people by 2030.
“Delegated by the Politburo to become a regional center, Vinh, although a first-class city, is wearing a shirt that is too tight for its rapidly growing body and needs to grow even faster. Therefore, expanding administrative boundaries and urban space is very urgent,” Mr. Vo Viet Thanh talked to us in a small coffee shop, behind which were photos of Quang Trung area, Vinh city in the 80s of the last century, adding that: The planning was carried out by foreign consultants to ensure scientific, sustainable, and worthy.
After that, the Prime Minister successively issued two decisions approving the Project to develop Vinh into an economic and cultural center of the North Central region in the spirit of Resolution No. 26 of the Politburo. That was Decision No. 2468/QD-TTg in 2015, effective until 2020; followed by Decision No. 827/QD-TTg in 2020, effective until 2023.
Thus, up to now, after more than 2 decades, with a Conclusion, a Resolution of the Politburo and 3 Decisions of the Prime Minister, Vinh city has been identified as an urban area with a very important role not only of Nghe An but also of the North Central region. However, the results achieved by Vinh city have not been as expected. In addition to the fields of health, education, and finance that have formed a regional center, the largest urban area of Nghe An still lacks many conditions to be worthy of being a locomotive in the economic and cultural fields of the North Central region.
Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Dinh Thien - former Director of the Vietnam Economic Institute, Deputy Head of the Economic - Social Advisory Group of Nghe An province, acknowledged: In 10 years of implementing Resolution No. 26 of the Politburo, the regional role and mission of Vinh are not clear; the regional function of the central urban area has not been defined, the level of modernization has not met the role of "convergence, leadership, and diffusion" of regional development; the role of "provincial capital" is more prominent than the role of "regional center". According to him, one of the weaknesses of Vinh city is that its administrative boundaries are too narrow, creating "frustration" in development space, leading to the failure to attract large projects with driving force to create a breakthrough in socio-economic development.
Agreeing with the above opinion, the leaders of the province and city also realized that attracting investment to the city is very difficult due to limited space, not meeting the requirements for large projects. "There are many reasons for the above limitations, but mainly due to lack of resources, lack of specific and outstanding mechanisms and policies, slow expansion of development space for the city to develop commensurate with its role as a locomotive of integration, pioneering development and solving important tasks of the region", Secretary of the City Party Committee, Chairman of the People's Council of Vinh City Phan Duc Dong acknowledged at the Conference to disseminate and implement Resolution No. 39-NQ/TW of the Politburo on building and developing Nghe An province to 2030, vision 2045 on September 16, 2023.
From 1963 to 2008, Vinh city underwent 7 administrative unit arrangements, including 2 administrative boundary expansions with the merger of several communes of the districts: Hung Nguyen and Nghi Loc to expand the area from about 10 times larger, reaching nearly 105km2.
Specifically, nIn 1963, the Government Council issued Decision No. 148/CP to establish Vinh city. In 1970, the communes of Hung Hoa, Hung Loc, Hung Dong, Hung Vinh, Vinh Hung and Vinh Tan of Hung Nguyen district; and Nghi Phu commune of Nghi Loc district were transferred to Vinh city for management.
In 1975, Vinh was the provincial capital of Nghe Tinh province, including 5 wards: Hong Son, Le Mao, Quang Trung I, Quang Trung II, Trung Do and 10 communes: Hung Binh, Hung Dong, Hung Dung, Hung Hoa, Hung Loc, Hung Thuy, Hung Vinh, Nghi Phu, Vinh Hung, Vinh Tan.
In 1979, the three communes of Hung Binh, Hung Thuy, Vinh Hung were dissolved to establish nine wards: Cua Bac, Tan Vinh, Hung Binh, Le Loi, Cau Cang, Ben Thuy, Truong Thi, Doi Cung, Cua Nam; the two communes of Hung Vinh and Hung Dong were merged into Dong Vinh commune.
In 1982, Quang Trung I ward merged into Quang Trung II ward to form Quang Trung ward; Tan Vinh ward merged into Le Mao ward; Hung Binh ward was separated into 2 wards: Hung Binh and Ha Huy Tap.
On August 13, 1993, the Prime Minister issued a decision to recognize Vinh city as a type II urban area. In 1994, Dong Vinh commune was divided into Dong Vinh ward and Hung Dong commune; Cua Bac ward was merged into Cua Nam ward; Cau Cang ward was merged into Ben Thuy ward; Hung Dung commune was converted into Hung Dung ward..
On March 23, 2005, the wards of Hung Phuc and Quan Bau were established. In 2008, Vinh city was expanded by merging 4 communes: Nghi Kim, Nghi Duc, Nghi Lien, Nghi An of Nghi Loc district and Hung Chinh commune, part of Hung Thinh commune of Hung Nguyen district; Vinh Tan commune was converted into Vinh Tan ward.
On September 5, 2008, the Prime Minister recognized Vinh city as a first-class urban area under Nghe An province. Vinh city has been operating stably since then with 25 commune-level administrative units, including 16 wards.:Ben Thuy, Cua Nam, Doi Cung, Dong Vinh, Ha Huy Tap, Hong Son, Hung Binh, Hung Dung, Hung Phuc, Le Loi, Le Mao, Quan Bau, Quang Trung, Trung Do, Truong Thi, Vinh Tan and 9 communes:Hung Chinh, Hung Dong, Hung Hoa, Hung Loc, Nghi An, Nghi Duc, Nghi Kim, Nghi Lien, Nghi Phu.
The smallest town in Vietnam
In the last days of the year, before the ceremony to announce the merger of Cua Lo town and 4 communes of Nghi Loc district into Vinh city, we met Mr. Le Truong Danh - the first Secretary of the Town Party Committee of the coastal town. He said: In 1994, the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee had a policy to develop a new economic sector, which is tourism. The province established the Planning Board of Cua Lo town with Mr. Pham Van Huan - Member of the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee as the Head of the Board. Mr. Danh was then the Standing Deputy Secretary of the Nghi Loc District Party Committee and was transferred by the province to be the Standing Deputy Head of the Board.
Receiving the historic task assigned by the province, the leaders of the committee and members representing departments and branches started to sketch out the shape of a coastal town of Nghe An province with the core being Cua Lo town in Nghi Loc district and some neighboring communes. On August 29, 1994, Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet signed Decree No. 113-CP of the Government to establish Cua Lo town in Nghe An province with 5 wards and 2 communes on the basis of Cua Lo town and the communes of Nghi Thu, Nghi Hung, Nghi Hoa, Nghi Hai and a part of Nghi Quang commune, Nghi Loc district. On September 15, 1994, the provisional Executive Committee of the town Party Committee was introduced and the decisions on personnel work were announced. Mr. Le Truong Danh was appointed to hold the position of Secretary of the Cua Lo Town Party Committee. In October 1994, the People's Committee of Cua Lo town was introduced, comrade Pham Van Thin was elected Chairman of the People's Committee of the town. From October 1, 1994, the town's political system began to operate.
Recalling the early days, Mr. Danh said Cua Lo faced numerous challenges: The headquarters had to be rented or borrowed; the entire town had only one road, 3m wide and 6km long, connecting Cua Hoi to Cua Lo, which is today's Binh Minh road; the rest were all dirt and sandy roads, and officials had to park their vehicles near their offices and could not cycle home because of the quicksand. There was almost no infrastructure, the communes were mostly made of bamboo and thatch, and the people's education level was low. The entire town had about 400 illiterate people of working age; the economy was purely agricultural and purely fishery, but agricultural productivity was low, and fishing was only done along the shore, not offshore.
Starting from the planning work, the town drew the urban area in a very systematic checkerboard pattern with 3 main parallel roads, each road 300m apart, the line closest to the sea is the current Binh Minh road and 25 cross roads from Cua Lo to Cua Hoi. Along the beach, it is also not allowed to form trading posts but will be arranged on the west side of Binh Minh road. The height of construction works is also required to gradually increase in the shape of a "roof", that is, low in the front near the sea and gradually higher in the back to avoid creating a "wall" blocking the wind from the sea and also a way to ensure that hotels in the back alleys can see the sea.
To gradually develop Cua Lo, the leaders of Cua Lo town at that time determined: Developing infrastructure, developing tourism services and giving top priority to education, improving people's intellectual level through building schools, taking care of teachers. At the same time, the town coordinated with the border guards to eliminate illiteracy for the people. In the economic field, when the State had a policy of offshore fishing, the town focused on investing in Nghi Thuy and Nghi Tan 2 ships; along with that, developing tourism services to improve people's lives.
In the early stages of construction, the town received special attention from the Central and the province. In 1995, amidst many difficulties, Cua Lo was honored to welcome Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet to visit and work; and the province adopted mechanisms and policies such as leaving 100% of the land auction proceeds for the town to invest in infrastructure construction.
Having been involved in the most difficult early years of the town's establishment before moving to the province to work, and then returning to the coastal town to live when he retired, almost witnessing the 30-year journey of change of Cua Lo, Mr. Danh was excited by the remarkable development, from a small town to the first coastal town of Nghe An, from the wild sand dunes growing strongly and being recognized by the Prime Minister as the first coastal tourist city in the country.
But there are also regrets, when many initial planning ideas could not be implemented; in particular, Cua Lo should have been larger to have space for development, not just stopping at the scale of the past three decades. Mr. Le Truong Danh said: When making the project to establish the town, the Provincial Planning Board did not stop at 7 wards but also expanded to some other localities of Nghi Loc, but to ensure urban criteria, the approval process at the Central level had to be reduced. Another time, when Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet visited and worked, he gave the policy of expanding the administrative boundaries of the town, but later for many reasons it could not be realized. Due to the limited land fund, the later it was, the more difficult it was for Cua Lo to attract large projects for development.
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