Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh: Planning is a fundamental tool to orient urban development.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh chairs the 2022 National Urban Conference. Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac

On the morning of November 30, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh chaired the 2022 National Urban Conference to disseminate Resolution No. 148/NQ-CP dated November 11, 2022 of the Government promulgating the Action Program to implement Resolution No. 06-NQ/TW dated January 24, 2022 of the Politburo on "Planning, construction, management and sustainable development of Vietnamese urban areas to 2030, with a vision to 2045".

The conference was organized in a combination of in-person and online formats, connecting from the Government Headquarters to the headquarters of the People's Committees of provinces and centrally-run cities.

At the conference, Minister of Construction Nguyen Thanh Nghi presented the basic content of the Government's Action Program; leaders of ministries, branches and localities presented papers on building and perfecting urban government; developing urban transport infrastructure; building new rural areas associated with urban development and urbanization orientation; issues arising, impacts of climate change on urban development; experiences and orientations for urban development in some localities such as Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Quang Ninh; building smart cities... The conference also heard opinions from representatives of international organizations such as the World Bank, the United Nations Human Settlements Program, with commitments to accompany, support and provide resources to Vietnam in the process of implementing the new urban agenda.

Urban development is a driving force for development.

Concluding the conference, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh stated that the conference was held on the occasion of Vietnam Urban Day and World Urbanization Day (November 8), the whole country continued to carry out the tasks of 2022, the socio-economic recovery and development program, implementing the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress and the thematic resolutions of the Central Committee. The conference demonstrated the spirit repeatedly emphasized by General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong as "front and rear support, one call, all responses, top and bottom unanimity, horizontal and vertical communication", the Government issued an action program to bring the Party's Resolution into life. Thus, from the Party's policy to institutionalization by State mechanisms, policies, laws, resource allocation, organization of planning, construction and management of urban development, there has been a continuous and consistent process.

The Prime Minister spent a lot of time analyzing the position, role, potential and strengths of urban areas so that all levels and sectors have the right awareness and take appropriate and effective actions in the spirit of urban development as a driving force for development, contributing to building an independent and self-reliant economy associated with proactive and active international integration, deeply, substantially and effectively.

Accordingly, urban areas play an important role in organizing development space, arranging housing and living for people; are places where economic, financial, cultural and social centers gather, and provide essential infrastructure and resources, including financial resources as well as high-quality human resources for activities related to economic and social life.

Currently, urban areas only occupy a small area, but have an important contribution and profound influence on the entire economic and social life of the country, urban areas and human development. Urbanization and urban development are opportunities for each country, region and locality to develop and grow in all aspects. In the world, urban areas are generating up to 80% of global GDP, of which the 100 largest cities account for about 35% of global GDP. In Vietnam, urban areas are contributing up to 70% of the country's GDP, 5 centrally-run cities, although accounting for only 2.9% of the area and about 22% of the population, contributed up to 46.8% of the country's GDP in 2020.

Currently, more than 50% of the population is living in urban areas. It is forecasted that by 2050, about 70% of the world's population will live in urban areas, of which nearly 90% will occur in Asia and Africa. The Prime Minister emphasized that urbanization is an inevitable objective trend of the world, but if urban development is not in the right direction, not standard, not systematic, it will lead to many consequences.

In the coming time, along with opportunities and the general development context, in the spirit of combining internal and external forces, national strength with the strength of the times, paying attention to policy planning and solutions to promote the urbanization process and planned urban development with a roadmap is an important task.

"It can be said that civilizations, creativity and innovation can all be found in urban areas, development resources are all created from urban areas, and the driving force for socio-economic development also comes from urban areas. We can find more opportunities in urban areas, and only urban areas can provide solutions to current challenges facing humanity such as environmental protection, climate change, prevention of unforeseen risks, contributing to improving the material and spiritual life of the people," the Prime Minister emphasized.

Regarding urban development policies and guidelines, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh stated that over the past time, the Party and State have issued and effectively implemented many policies and guidelines to promote potential and advantages, creating momentum for urban development in line with world trends and in accordance with Vietnam's conditions.

Documents of many Party Congresses have shown concern and leadership orientations on urban development. Right from the 4th Congress, the issue of industrialization associated with urbanization was raised. The 13th National Party Congress set the goal of striving to become a developing country with modern industry and high average income by 2030 and to become a developed country with high income by 2045 and identified "taking urban areas as the driving force for regional development" as one of the main tasks and solutions in the 10-year Socio-Economic Development Strategy 2021-2030.

To concretize the Resolution of the 13th National Congress, the Politburo for the first time issued a separate resolution to specifically direct the planning, construction and management of sustainable urban development. Immediately after that, the Government issued the Government's Action Program to implement Resolution No. 06 of the Politburo with many specific criteria and 5 groups of main tasks and solutions.

The urban economy contributes about 70% of the country's GDP.

Opinions at the conference unanimously assessed that after more than 35 years of innovation, especially in the past 10 years, urban planning, construction, management and development in our country have achieved many very important results. Urbanization and urban development have become important driving forces for socio-economic development.

By the end of 2020, our country's urban system had 862 urban areas of all types, distributed relatively evenly throughout the country; the urbanization rate determined by urban functional areas increased from 30.5% in 2010 to 41% in June 2022.

Urban space has been expanded; technical infrastructure, economic and social infrastructure have been invested in a more synchronous and effective manner. The quality of life of urban residents has been gradually improved both materially and spiritually. The appearance of urban architecture and constructions has changed a lot in a modern direction, both communicating with the world and inheriting, promoting and enriching the cultural identity of the nation and regions.

Planning must be one step ahead with breakthrough thinking and strategic vision, the Prime Minister emphasized. Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac

The national urban system has developed strongly in both quantity and quality, becoming the driving force for socio-economic development of the whole country and each region. Initially, economic growth poles and centers of innovation, science, technology, education and training have been formed in major cities.

Economic growth in urban areas averages 12-15%, 1.5-2 times higher than the national average. Urban areas have made important contributions to job creation, increasing social welfare, creating breakthroughs in attracting investment, developing science and technology, and innovation. Urban economies grow at a high rate, contributing about 70% of the country's GDP.

Agreeing with the above assessments, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh also pointed out that after more than 10 years of implementing adjustments to the master plan for the development of Vietnam's urban system, in addition to many important achievements, Vietnam's urban areas still have many difficulties, remaining problems and challenges that need to be overcome.

The Prime Minister emphasized a number of issues such as infrastructure overload, especially transport infrastructure, lack of social housing, impacts and risks from climate change, especially flooding, greenhouse gas emissions, social infrastructure (healthcare, education, culture) not yet developed to the same level as the economy, especially when there are unusual developments such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the situation of suspended planning in some places...

The Prime Minister also emphasized a number of challenges such as how to ensure urban growth does not put pressure on limited land resources, existing infrastructure and services, does not develop unsustainably, and does not limit the opportunities of future generations. Along with that, how to improve urban quality, successfully implement the goal of renovating and reconstructing existing urban areas, overcome development bottlenecks, and create new resources for urban areas. And how to promote the formation and development of new more sustainable urban models, develop green economy, circular economy, digital economy, and increasingly improve resilience and adaptability to risks.

Planning is a fundamental tool to orient urban development.

To realize the goals and targets in the Resolution of the Politburo and the Action Program of the Politburo, the Prime Minister emphasized a number of viewpoints and orientations. Accordingly, we need to have a new mindset and approach; closely follow reality, respect reality, start from reality and take reality as a measure; implement work with focus and key points, do it well with specific, practical, effective and efficient measures and solutions.

At the same time, attach importance to and invest appropriately in planning work. Diversify, combine, and strongly promote resources. Unify awareness and action; have appropriate solutions, handle problems with the highest efficiency; strongly promote democracy and collective intelligence. Promote decentralization, delegation of authority, individualize responsibilities along with appropriate allocation of resources, improve the capacity of the implementation staff, strengthen inspection, supervision, control of power and evaluate and summarize experiences.

The Prime Minister emphasized that the Government's action program has set out 33 tasks focusing on 5 groups of solutions, first of all the group of tasks to raise and unify awareness of the characteristics of urban areas, the role and position of urban areas in general development, identifying urban development as consisting of 3 main pillars: planning, construction and urban management.

The second is the task group to improve the quality of planning and planning management to meet the requirements of urban construction and development management; and to improve capacity in the stages of planning construction, appraisal and approval. Planning is a fundamental tool to guide urban development, the Prime Minister emphasized.

"Planning must be one step ahead with breakthrough thinking and strategic vision. If planning is confused, slow, and not invested in at par, it will waste resources, cause unsustainable development, and cause no breakthrough development. Only when planning is done well can resources be saved, different potentials, outstanding opportunities, competitive advantages be identified and resolved, and difficulties and challenges of the locality and region can be identified and resolved. The master plan can be implemented in stages in accordance with resources. We can persevere in implementing it for 5 years, 10 years, 20 years, even hundreds of years... and if we respect and follow the complete plan, we will have an orderly and developed city," the Prime Minister emphasized.

Third is the group of tasks on investment in developing a synchronous and modern urban infrastructure system on the basis of strongly mobilizing resources, having mechanisms and policies to mobilize resources, harmoniously, reasonably and effectively combining internal and external resources (in which internal resources including people, nature, historical and cultural traditions are fundamental, long-term, strategic and decisive; external resources are important, breakthrough and regular), between State resources and social resources; at the same time saving, increasing revenue, reducing expenditure, allocating and using resources effectively, and investing with focus and key points.

The Prime Minister requested ministries, branches and localities to focus on developing strategic infrastructure according to the three identified strategic breakthroughs, especially transport infrastructure, thereby creating new development space, new urban areas and services, creating jobs and livelihoods for people.

"We have the Law on Public-Private Partnership, but the tools to mobilize public-private partnership are still weak. There are still many problems regarding institutions, mechanisms, and policies that need to be addressed, but with the existing mechanisms, localities can still do it if leaders of ministries, branches, and localities focus on thinking and making maximum use of existing regulations in the spirit of daring to think and daring to do," the Prime Minister shared.

Fourth, the group carries out parallel tasks and projects according to its own specialization. Because urban development is not the task of the construction industry alone, urban areas are a common space for everyone and an important link connecting different industries and fields. Industries need to review related tasks to prioritize parallel implementation, practically creating a resonance effect, general coordination, unity, forming a combined strength in urban development for the common benefit and common goals.

The fifth is the task group on building institutions, policy mechanisms, legal documents, detecting obstacles and responding to policies promptly and effectively. If necessary, piloting, learning from experience while doing, gradually expanding, not being perfectionist, not being hasty, especially in handling bottlenecks in urban development. Continuing to build and perfect urban government.

Resolution No. 06 of the Politburo has put forward 5 guiding viewpoints on planning, construction and management of sustainable urban development in Vietnam with the general goal: Accelerating the speed and improving the quality of urbanization, developing sustainable urban areas according to the network, forming a number of urban areas, smart dynamic urban chains connecting with the region and the world. Institutions and policies on planning, construction, management and sustainable urban development are basically completed. Urban infrastructure, especially technical infrastructure and essential social infrastructure, are built and developed synchronously and modernly. Urban economy grows rapidly, effectively and sustainably. The quality of life in urban areas is high, ensuring basic satisfaction of housing and social infrastructure needs for urban residents. Developing modern, green, smart urban architecture, rich in identity, typical cultural elements are preserved and promoted.

The Government's action program to implement Resolution No. 06-NQ/TW has set out 15 specific target groups such as: The national urbanization rate by 2025 will reach at least 45%, by 2030 it will reach over 50%. The number of urban areas nationwide by 2025 will be about 950 - 1,000, by 2030 it will be about 1,000 - 1,200. By 2025, ensure that at least 100% of type III or higher urban areas complete the criteria for urban classification in terms of urban infrastructure, especially infrastructure for health, education, training and urban-level cultural works. The ratio of traffic land to urban construction land will reach about 11 - 16% in 2025, 16 - 26% in 2030. The average green area per urban resident will reach about 6 - 8m2.²by 2025, about 8 - 10m²by 2030.