At the working, WB Chief Economist Sandeep Mahajan presented the WB report, called “Vietnam 2035 Report”, on urbanization and urban space transformation in Vietnam, which highlighted the common development trend of the world's urban areas in general, and Vietnam’s in particular. According to this report, Vietnam’s economic activities mainly focus on big cities, and urbanization is an extremely vital factor in the development of Vietnam. Mr. Sandeep Mahajan considered industrialization and urbanization as two parallel processes, which meant the higher the rate of urbanization in a country was, the more developing and prospering it was. In addition, Vietnam 2035 Report points out some challenges facing Vietnam in the process of urbanization, such as low regional link, pressure on the technical infrastructure system, traffic problem in cities due to increasing people migrating from rural areas to large urban ones...
The WB Country Director in Vietnam - Mrs. Victoria Kwakwa - at the working session.
Minister Trinh Dinh Dung agreed with the the WB’s assessment on urban development trends in the world, and emphasized that today, people tended to look for urbans with synchronous technical infrastructure and more convenient than rural areas. Producing commodity and providing high quality work force, urban areas are basis of and motivation for the development of each country, said Minister Trinh Dinh Dung.
Minister Dung informed that Vietnam mainly focused on building urban development mechanism, which was regarded as significant in urban development beacause it ensured market mechanism yet unseparated from the State Management. Vietnam also concerned much about urban development strategy aimed to create urban area which was the key to promote economic restructuring in each region and each province . This reflected in the urban development policy and orientation approved by the Prime Minister which was an important solution in overcoming the disparity between urban areas and avoiding the urban centralization in Vietnam.
The working session scene.
At the working, Minister Trinh Dinh Dung listed some cooperation projects between the MOC and the WB in order of priority such as: Safe Water Supply in the Mekong Delta Project, National Urban Development in South Central Coast, the Mekong Delta and the Western Highlands region Project, and other projects on transport, drainage, housing and resettlement, social infrastructures...
Mrs. Victoria Kwakwa absolutely agreed with the MOC on high priority projects cooperating with the WB in future. According to Mrs. Victoria Kwakwa, the Safety Water Supply in Mekong Delta Project is a big , particularly important one which requires the fulfillment of all steps from coordinating to implementing, and WB would try to support Vietnam as much as possible in implementing of this project.
Written by: Tran Dinh Ha
Translated by: Mai Anh