Prime Minister chairs national urban conference 2022

Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính urged ministries, sectors and localities to carry out specific and practical action programmes on urban areas' planning, construction, management and development.

Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính on Wednesday co-chaired a national urban conference in Hà Nội to implement Government and Politburo resolutions on expanding urban areas between now and 2030.

In his opening speech, PM Chính said the event is expected to create positive changes in the scale and quality of the urbanisation process and urban development in the next ten years, focusing on improving the efficiency of resources exploitation and optimising innovative urban resources in addition to traditional resources, the PM said.

He stressed that urban areas play an important role in organising developing space, allocating living areas for people and gathering economic, financial, cultural and social centres as well as in supplying essential infrastructure and resources, including both financial resources and high-quality human resources, for social-economic activities.

Urban areas made important contributions and have wide and deep impacts on the whole socio-economic activities of a nation and the development of people. Urbanisation and urban development are opportunities for each nation, each region and each locality to make breakthrough development and growth in all fields, PM Chính said.

In the world, urban areas create up to 80 per cent of the global GDP. In Việt Nam, urban areas contribute 70 per cent of the national GDP.

More attention should be made to policy making and taking measures to promote the urbanisation and urban development process in the future in order to tap advantages from urban areas while handling existing challenges in urban development, he said.

The Government leader said the Party and State have issued and implemented many policies to promote the potential, tap the advantages and create motivation for urban development.

Over the past 10 years, planning, construction and development of urban areas have gained positive results. Urbanisation and urban development have become important motivations for socio-economic development. By the end of 2020, Việt Nam has 862 urban areas of various kinds across the country. The urbanisation rate increased from 30.5 per cent in 2010 to 41 per cent as of June 2022.

Economic growth in urban areas increased 12-15 per cent, 1.5-2 times higher than the national average. Urban areas have made important contributions to creating jobs, increasing social welfare, creating breakthrough in investment attraction and to the development of science and technology.

However, challenges remain in urban development, including overload in infrastructure, traffic and housing; environmental pollution; and limitations in planning activities, PM Chính said.

He urged ministries, sectors and localities to carry out specific and practical action programmes on urban areas' planning, construction, management and development in order to fulfil the targets of sustainable urban development.

According to Chairman of the Party Central Committee's Economic Commission Trần Tuấn Anh, before the conference, the commission and the Ministry of Construction hosted three symposiums on various urban development issues, collecting opinions from managers, experts, and scientists on how to implement the relevant resolutions effectively.

He suggested participants focus on important issues such as tasks and solutions to create breakthroughs in sustainable urban development, planning management, building synchronous and modern urban technical infrastructure, and developing sustainable and synchronous urban networks.

The Politburo issued Resolution No 06-NQ/TW on the planning, construction, management and development of sustainable urban development in Việt Nam to 2030, with a vision to 2045, on January 24 this year. The Government issued Resolution No 148/NQ-CP to implement Resolution No 06 on November 11.

Under Resolution No 148, Việt Nam's urbanisation rate will be 45 per cent by 2025 and more than 50 per cent by 2030. In terms of economy, urban areas are projected to make up 75 per cent of the national GDP by 2025 and about 85 per cent by 2030.

The proportion of the digital economy in the GRDP of centrally-run cities will reach 25-30 per cent by 2025 and 35-40 per cent by 2030.