On November 8, 2023, the Vietnam Urban Sustainability Summit 2023 took place in Hanoi in attendance of Minister of Construction Nguyen Thanh Nghi; Deputy Head of the Central Economic Commission Nguyen Duc Hien; former leaders of the Ministry of Construction; representatives of ministries, central branches, domestic and international agencies and organizations.
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Minister of Construction Nguyen Thanh Nghi speaking at the forum
Speaking at the opening of the Forum, Minister Nguyen Thanh Nghi said that since 2008, November 8 has been recognized by the Prime Minister as Vietnam Urban Day, based on considering the role and meaning of urban areas for the overall development of the country, as well as in response to World Urban Planning Day and World Urbanization Day, in order to attract the attention of all levels of government, organizations, individuals, and participating communities in urban construction and development.
Vietnam Urban Sustainability Summit 2023 took place on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the formation and development of the Vietnam Urban Forum. Over past 20 years, the Forum has promoted the sharing of experiences and knowledge among state management agencies, scientific and professional organizations, political and social organizations, and non-governmental organizations to actively contribute to developing and implementing policies on urban management and development; implementing the comprehensive strategy on growth and poverty reduction, improving the efficiency of management and urban development in Vietnam.
Minister of Construction Nguyen Thanh Nghi noted that, Vietnam Urban Forum this year took place in the context of Vietnam urban areas entering the first year of implementing Resolution 06-NQ/TW dated January 24, 2022 of the Politburo on planning, construction, management and sustainable development of Vietnam urban areas to 2030, vision to 2045. This was the first time the Politburo with a separate thematic Resolution on the field of urban management and development, thereby affirming the role of Vietnam urban system, while providing strategic directions with requirements, tasks and solutions that are very important for Vietnam urban development in the new period.
Minister Nguyen Thanh Nghi believed that the Vietnam Urban Forum 2023 is an opportunity for urban authorities, managers, experts, organizations, and relevant communities to dialogue, share, and connect knowledge, important lessons and practices to jointly have proposals, directions, and best practices in realizing the key tasks set out in Resolution 06-NQ/TW and Resolution 148/NQ-CP of the Government on implementing the Action Program to implement Resolution No. 06-NQ/TW proposed for the development of Vietnam's urban system in the new period.
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Deputy Head of the Central Economic Commission Nguyen Duc Hien spoke at the Forum
In his opening speech, Mr Nguyen Duc Hien - Deputy Head of the Central Economic Commission raised positive results as well as some shortcomings and limitations in building and promulgating the Program/Action Plan to implement Resolution No. 06 -NQ/TW in localities and asked experts and delegates attending the Forum to focus on exchanging, discussing and clarifying a number of contents such as: change the mind and awareness of urbanization and sustainable urban development in the spirit of Resolution No. 06-NQ/TW; urban construction in response to climate change; accelerate the synchronous completion of institutions and policies to facilitate the urbanization process, planning, construction, management and sustainable urban development; remove all barriers and obstacles to free up resources, especially land for urban and economic development in urban areas; create all conditions and encourage economic sectors, especially economic private participation in urban development investment; improve competitiveness, increase economic density and regional connectivity, linkages between urban areas, and linkages between urban and rural areas in urban economic development; innovate the economic growth model of urban areas through developing high-quality human resources associated with promoting the application of science, technology and innovation.
Speaking at the Forum, Director of the Urban Development Department (Ministry of Construction) Tran Quoc Thai said that in order to concretize the guiding viewpoints, goals, tasks and solutions stated in Resolution 06-NQ /TW of the Politburo, the Urban Development Department has researched, proposed, and advised the Ministry's leaders to develop 5 policies in the management of sustainable urban development in Vietnam on classification, sustainable urban areas management and development, synchronous in network and suitable for regions; new development management, renovation and redevelopment of modern, green, smart urban areas, towards sustainable development; management and develoment a synchronous, interconnected urban infrastructure system, adapting to climate change; management and development underground space; strengthening decentralization and improving urban development management capacity.
At the Forum, Ms. Naomi Hoogervorst - representative of UN-Habitat emphasized the role of cities as catalysts for sustainable change. UN-Habitat welcomes the commitment of the Government of Vietnam in implementing the agenda which clearly demonstrated through Resolution No. 06-NQ/TW and the practical steps taken through the National Action Plan promulgated in 2022. In addition, UN-Habitat appreciates the fact that localities are very active in transforming the Resolution into concrete actions, especially amending legal frameworks and integrating sustainability principles into Government initiatives.
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Mr Hervé Conan spoke at the Forum
Speaking at the Forum, Country Director of the French Development Agency (AFD) in Vietnam Hervé Conan said that for adaptive urban development planning, it is necessary to clearly identify natural risk areas in urban area, and has actions to preserve as much as possible areas that may be at risk from construction. He also assessed that the selection of urbanization areas is very important. In addition, it should be noted that extreme weather events affects to provinces and cities regardless of current administrative boundaries.
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Overview of the Forum
Within the framework of the Vietnam Urban Sustainability Summit 2023, there will be 3 thematic seminars on urban planning towards sustainable urban development; digital transformation in urban development management; environmentally friendly and resilient to climate change urban development.