View from Hoi An
Sustainable development involves the conservation and overall growth of different types of capital such as manufactured capital, natural capital and social capital. The three pillars of sustainability, namely economic, environmental and social, are recognized and promoted in the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Joining the UNESCO Global Creative Cities Network at the end of 2023 makes the need for sustainable development of Hoi An even more urgent.
According to Dr. Pham Viet Anh (sustainable development expert, PhD student in sustainable development at an intergovernmental institution - UN Treaty University), to develop sustainably, first of all, Hoi An needs to try to maintain its natural capital status.
It is necessary to continue to expand policies to control seafood exploitation quotas (to maintain natural capital gains), strictly prohibit the destruction of natural forests, special-use forests, and protective forests for short-term economic purposes...
“Without responsible citizens, there is no sustainable city. To build a sharing city - one of the important factors forming a sustainable city, social capital must be strong. Because once social trust is low, people cannot share common benefits with each other.” ( Dr. Pham Viet Anh)
“Sustainable development is also associated with the sharing economy, because thanks to social sharing, waste is reduced, idle resources are optimized, and assets are not neglected.
For example, we can establish a “time bank” through which people can share their idle working hours with each other in the spirit of sharing without any fees, and build used goods sharing sites to circulate the product life cycle.
In addition, Hoi An also needs to promote investment in green technology, switch to renewable energy, take advantage of green financial resources from partners, call for sustainable community capital, prioritize improving human capital, to reach the goal of zero net emissions to help develop inclusively and sustainably" - Dr. Pham Viet Anh shared.
According to Architect Ngo Viet Nam Son - Chairman of NgoViet Architects & Planners, everything in nature and society has relative value. When the capacity and density have reached the threshold, development must stop to avoid reducing the value of urban heritage.
“In the future, Hoi An will face “greed” and should know when to stop, accept the disadvantages and inconveniences of the subjects but maintain the sustainable development of the heritage city to avoid the situation of the more it develops, the more it goes backwards” - Architect Ngo Viet Nam Son said.
Addressing multidimensional challenges
Most urban areas are planned to be the driving force of the development of the land. In Quang Nam, large urban areas are located in the two driving forces in the north and south of the province.
The positive point now is that planning vision and managers are no longer positioning urban economic growth at all costs.
In some working sessions of the province, the not-so-heavy story about Hoi An's budget revenue target was discussed. The upgrading of Tam Ky's urban status (to type I) and Hoi An's (to type II) was also considered many times, with the timing postponed to focus on the reality of urban scale instead of rushing towards these goals.
Cities in the process of development are facing many big problems such as protecting biodiversity, reducing environmental pollution, promoting social equity...
The World Resources Institute's climate analysis tool shows that energy is responsible for 66% of total emissions while agriculture accounts for 23% of total annual emissions in Vietnam.
Quang Nam is catching up with the trend of green energy and sustainable agriculture, starting from urban areas where Tam Ky is a pilot urban area implementing a sustainable urban cooling project, while Hoi An has many positive signals in the transformation to green agriculture and the development of agricultural tourism economy.
According to the Quang Nam Tourism Association, recently many businesses in Hoi An have deployed green technologies and solutions such as using renewable energy, applying digital transformation, green transportation, community cooperation and green education, promoting new tourism models...
This not only contributes to improving the business performance of tourism enterprises, but also minimizes negative impacts on the environment and local communities, thereby creating an attractive and sustainable tourism environment.
Dr. Pham Viet Anh commented that Hoi An is a small city and a world cultural heritage, so it will be given priority in the service-tourism economy and thus help reduce greenhouse gas emissions better than the manufacturing sector. Prioritizing carbon emission reduction is very important.
For production and business activities in Hoi An, the issue is not increasing output but increasing output value. If digitalization can be achieved, management costs will be improved to some extent, but the key is to build value.
A zero-waste circular economy combined with a zero-emission green economy is ideal for achieving sustainability, poverty reduction, and equitable urban development.
Source: https://baoquangnam.vn/do-thi-thinh-vuong-khong-tang-truong-3137018.html
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