Vietnam aims for 50pc urbanisation by 2030
HANOI: Vietnam plans to be 50 per cent urbanised by 2030 and become a top medical and education hub in Southeast Asia.
The country’s Central Economic Commission head Tran Tuan Anh said during a conference on sustainable development of urban areas, the Vietnamese Communist Party’s decision-making Politburo had called for quicker and better urbanisation in the country.
He said it also wanted urban areas to be sustainably developed into networks that connected people with various economic sectors.
According to a Vn Express daily report, the urbanisation rate of Vietnam would be around 45 per cent in 2025, with 950 to 1,000 urban areas.
The rate is expected to reach 50 per cent with 1,000 to 1,200 urban areas by 2030, and this will require Vietnam to have an additional 100 urban areas within the next decade.
The report said Vietnam would also need to have certain urban centres at the national and regional level that met certain medical, education and cultural criteria, similar to top urban areas in Southeast Asia.
To achieve this, the ratio of land set aside for traffic and construction purposes in these urban areas must be between 16 and 26 per cent in 2030.
The urban areas would also need to contribute to around 85 per cent of the national gross domestic product.
Vo Van Thuong, a standing member of the Communist Party’s Secretariat, said urbanisation was an important component for the country’s growth.
He said urban planning must be for the long run, with people and their quality of life being the main focus.
“We can build a city with modern infrastructure in a short time, but to shift people’s ways of thinking and perspectives to adapt to urban life would take a long time,” he added.