At the conference, Minister Trinh Dinh Dung reported on the Steering Committee’s activities. He said Hanoi Capital Region Plan to 2020, a vision to 2050 was approved by the Prime Minister on Decision 490/QD-TTg dated May 5th, 2008 which covered 8 central provinces and cities (Ha Noi as the city-state, Ha Tay, Vinh Phuc, Bac Ninh, Hung Yen, Hai Duong, Ha Nam and Hoa Binh) with the total area of 13,428 km2, population of 13 million. After the 12th National Assembly had approved the Resolution to expand Ha Noi capital on May 29th, 2008, the Capital region covered 3 more provinces, including Phu Tho, Thai Nguyen and Bac Giang, increasing the total area of the Capital region to 24,315 km2, with nearly 17.5 million citizens (approximately 19.1% of the whole country’s population).
Minister Trinh Dinh Dung gave speech at the Conference
According to Minister Trinh Dinh Dung, after 10 years of following the Steering Committee’s direct and 5 years of implementing the Capital Region Plan, there were some great achievements despite of many difficulties and challenges, partly contributing to fulfill socio-economic goals of the region in particularly and the whole country in general. More details, the region economic growth remained at high rate, GDP in 2012 was 646,730 billion, equally 21.72% of the whole country’s, economic structure shifting rapidly towards increasing the share of industry and services; the planning and urban development got positive results, land use planned with higher percentage than that of the country, urban systems growing rapidly in terms of scale and quality. Industrial zone system, including 119 industrial zones with the total area of 31,805 ha, developed rapidly with the coverage rate ranging from 50 to 75%. Techinical and social infrastructure system developed dramatically, especially transport infrastructure with many important roads such as highways of Ha Noi - Thai Nguyen, Ha Noi - Hai Phong, Noi Bai - Lao Cai, Hoa Lac - Hoa Binh, Phap Van - Cau Gie, ring roads number 3, 4 and 5, bridges over the Red River, the urban railway system in Ha Noi... Housing sector flourished with a series of projects forming new urban and residential areas, with synchronized technical and social infrastructure, partly contributing to address housing needs and improving the living standard in urban areas. The regional development schedule had initial results thanks to activities of the Steering Committee of the Planning and Developing Ha Noi capital region and the participation of different ministries and local provinces. Those provinces included in the Region seriously took the Steering Committee’s guidance and direct; researched and paid attention to its own potential in the process of planning and investing to develop the local construction; carried out many cooperative activities to implement the regional projects; and actively shared information and experience in the management of construction planning and investing…
Besides the positive results achieved, Minister Trinh Dinh Dung also mentioned a number of shortcomings in the planning and investing to develop the Capital region, and suggested all conference attendants discuss to find solutions for some specific problems such as slow implementation, lack specialized planning, zoning, detailed planning, asynchronous infrastructure in urban areas, industrial zones,… The model of developing urban areas and the industry is unsustainable and do not promote the local competitiveness. Technical and social infrastructure are limitedly developed so there is a great shortage of health care centers, culture - sport centers.
The Conference scene
During the conference, the consultancy (VIAP) reported on the adjustment of the Ha Noi Capital Region Plan, and got feedback from representatives of Vinh Phuc, Bac Giang, Thai Nguyen, Phu Tho, Ha Noi as well as ones of the Ministries of Transportation, Industry and Trade, Finance.
Closing the conference, Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai acknowledged local leaderss effort in planning and investing to develop essential infrastructure. However, in his opinion, the Steering Committee’s achievements in recent time should be further developed as there were many weakness in terms of plan implementation, infrastructure development, urban development, cultural heritage reservation that had to be resolved.
As for the report on the first adjustment of the Capital Region Plan, Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai reccommended VIAP to focus more on checking and reviewing the implementation of the Decision 490/QD-TTg, collect opinions from minitries and local provinces to update the adjusted plan. In addition, it’s necessary to clarify function of each province in the Region, and anticipate the Region’s development through thoughtful forecast.
Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai asked the MOC to focus on guiding VIAP to complete its report on adjusted plan of Ha Noi Capital Region and submit it to the Government in the end of 2013; coordinating with other ministries and local provinces to review specialized plans, technical infrastructure schemes and projects; researching to propose plan management mechanism to ensure sustainable development in each province and in the whole region in accordance with missions in the Ha Noi Capital Region Plan approved by the Prime Minister.
Written by: Minh Tuan
Translated by: Thu Huyen