The country has more than 900 urban areas but the quality is not high.

Urban development still has many limitations

At the Vietnam Urban Sustainable Development Forum 2023, Dr. Tran Quoc Thai, Director of the Urban Development Department (Ministry of Construction), said that after more than 35 years of renovation, the urbanization process and urban development management in our country have achieved many results.

Minister of Construction Nguyen Thanh Nghi admitted that the quality of urban areas in our country is not high.

Specifically, as of October, the country had 902 urban areas. Of which, there were 2 special urban areas, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City; 22 type 1 urban areas; 36 type 2 urban areas; 45 type 3 urban areas; 94 type 4 urban areas; 703 type 5 urban areas. The urbanization rate reached about 42.6% compared to 1998.

At the same time, urban quality is improved in a synchronous manner to meet the needs of a quality living and working environment. Urban development is becoming an important driving force for socio-economic development. Initially, economic growth poles and innovation centers; science - technology; education - training have been formed in large cities.

However, the urbanization process and urban development management still have many limitations: urban areas still lack connectivity; the structure and quality of urban infrastructure are overloaded in large cities; the system of social infrastructure works is still lacking, lower than the standards and norms; urban public spaces have low renovation quality, not contributing to meeting the living needs of residents; exploitation of underground space and underground works is still very limited; urban management and administration capacity is still weak, slow to be renewed; current legal regulations regulating urban development are still fragmented...

Many domestic and foreign delegates attended the forum.

Speaking at the forum, Minister of Construction Nguyen Thanh Nghi admitted that urban quality is not high. Urban development is mainly in width, causing waste of land, and the level of economic concentration is still low. The structure and quality of urban infrastructure have not met the requirements of population and economic development in urban areas; they have not adapted to climate change and responded to large-scale epidemics; environmental pollution in large cities tends to increase and become more complicated, causing many negative impacts; the ability to access public services and social welfare of the poor and migrant workers in urban areas is still low and has many shortcomings...

Urbanization is an inevitable trend

However, Mr. Nghi affirmed that urbanization is inevitable. It is predicted that in the future, up to 2/3 of the world's population will live in urban areas and Vietnam is not out of this trend. Currently, the room for sustainable urban development in our country is still very large, so we need to prepare well from now.

Urban infrastructure in many places in our country is overloaded.

Regarding urban development solutions, Mr. Nghi said that local authorities need to pay attention, promote initiative, and allocate resources on the spot, especially promoting public investment to improve urban quality in parallel with the urbanization process.

Every officer in charge of urban development management needs to proactively improve his/her professional qualifications and capacity. Every citizen needs to improve his/her awareness and responsibility in the urban development process.

Speaking at the forum, Mr. Nguyen Duc Hien, Deputy Head of the Central Economic Commission, said that it is necessary to continue to innovate thinking to unify awareness of urbanization and sustainable urban development, considering this an important driving force for socio-economic development. It is necessary to identify the most important breakthrough to build and develop sustainable urban areas, adapting to climate change.

In addition, it is necessary to accelerate the synchronous completion of institutions and policies to facilitate the urbanization process, planning, construction, management and sustainable urban development. In particular, the focus is on building laws to manage sustainable urban development and laws regulating urban and rural planning; promoting decentralization and delegation of power to urban authorities.

At the same time, in the process of mobilizing resources for urban development, it is necessary to plan and develop infrastructure first, create resources, improve competitiveness, increase regional connectivity...

Source link: https://thanhnien.vn/ca-nuoc-co-hon-900-do-thi-nhung-chat-luong-chua-cao-185231108190519596.htm