Hanoi's New Era

2:39:04 PM | 28/10/2024

Hanoi's socioeconomic performance over the past 70 years, from its Liberation Day on October 10, 1954, to the present, has exhibited remarkable growth and impressive achievements. To ensure sustainable development for Hanoi moving forward, it is necessary to leverage local advantages and strategically allocate resources to comprehensively enhance the identified key sectors.


Hanoi's socioeconomic performance over the past 70 years has attained remarkable growth and impressive achievements

October 10, 1954 opening a new era for Hanoi’s development

Since the "Edict on the Transfer of the Capital" of Emperor Ly Thai To in 1010, Hanoi has experienced and witnessed a lot of historical changes. In its glorious history, Hanoi has faced over ten wars against foreign invaders and ended them in triumph. Particularly, the Capital Liberation Day on October 10, 1954 is one of the brilliant milestones opening a new era in its development process. 

Hanoi plays an important role in defining the country's political, economic, social and cultural identity. As the center of power and decision-making, it embodies the nation's identity through its symbolic architecture and adherence to sustainable economic, social and environmental standards. Additionally, it seeks to establish its position within the national and regional urban landscape.

According to experts, Hanoi's socioeconomic performance in the past 70 years, from its Liberation Day on October 10, 1954 to the present, has always been strongly growing, with stunning achievements.

Hanoi's socioeconomic performance over the past 70 years, from its Liberation Day on October 10, 1954, to the present, has demonstrated remarkable growth and impressive achievements. The city has constantly maintained good growth and contributed positively to the country's growth. In addition, Hanoi has also focused on developing the economy, culture and society, including a special topic on cultural development. Hanoi has invested in the preservation and restoration of over 5,000 historical relics. Its education is always at the top of the country.

In terms of connectivity infrastructure investment, the city has initiated a project to construct Ring Road 4 for the Capital region, along with parallel roads. This project aims to significantly enhance Hanoi's connectivity with neighboring provinces and cities.

On June 28, 2024, the National Assembly passed the amended Law on the Capital, effective January 1, 2025, and reviewed the master plan for capital construction to 2030, with a vision to 2050. This legislation provides a solid foundation for effectively implementing Resolution 15-NQ/TU of the Politburo, aimed at transforming Hanoi into a "Cultured - Civilized - Modern" capital.

However, in the era of new technological revolution, combined with global development and competition, Hanoi still sees many opportunities but also confronts many challenges in sustainable development and needs new approaches to maintain its domestic position and successfully integrate into the world.

In reality, cities around the world are the most important and complex systems, have a lot of residents and generate more than 80% of global GDP while occupying only about 3% of the earth's land area. Moreover, cities today are not merely economic centers because the focus on only economic efficiency and development often leads to unexpected outcomes. Instead, they should be seen as a set of diverse values and benefits. The allure of a city is shaped by the resources actively cultivated by its government, alongside the interplay of its economic, social and environmental ecosystems.

Therefore, the world's leading cities must always promote financial generation as the World Bank noted: "A competitive city is a city that successfully facilitates its firms and industries to create jobs, raise productivity, and increase the incomes of citizens over time." A city's capital stock, along with the interaction among its many forms, significantly influences the quality of life and overall livability.

5 solutions for more sustainable development

With this urban approach, we can propose five solutions for sustainable development that better support the country’s political, economic and social objectives.

First, necessarily identifying and focusing on comprehensively mobilizing its five resources from basic capital sources

Specifically, with its economic capital (this resource is created from fees, taxes, land rents and other revenues), we can use it to reinvest to create more economic capital (for example, infrastructure investment) and support or enhance other forms of capital.

With natural capital (such as water surface, land and trees), this capital depends a lot on local geographical conditions and how it is used and managed. If we manage it well and use it reasonably, this resource will increase. Specifically, there needs to be strong research and investment in Hanoi's river and lake areas such as the West Lake, the Red River and the Duong River to maximize the effectiveness of the city's natural capital.

With human capital (including skills, knowledge and production capacity that help individuals create more capital), we see that human capital plays an important role in economic growth and education is the basic way to accumulate human capital. Therefore, investment in education is a factor that promotes economic growth.

With social capital (that comes from the scale and quality of political economic institutions, legal environment, business, culture, education, social organizations and families), the connection between social capital and human capital is very strong. With a population of nearly 8.5 million (in 2022), Hanoi is the second most populous city in the country. If we manage and utilize this resource, it will help promote the prestige, reputation and brand of the capital city so that the city can increasingly attract investment, talent migration and other forms of capital.

Regarding product capital (this can be considered the fundamental resource and purpose of sustainable economic development), because quality products and services are the crystallization of effective resource management. Products and services reinvested in the form of input capital such as consumer goods and means of production will increase the value of output capital in the form of products and services with higher added value. Therefore, there is a need for policies to promote and develop core "made in Vietnam" products in the country's strategic industrial production sectors.

Second, building the government as an effective partner with the city's ecosystem to actively develop capital resources

The system is the metabolic process of the government and the ecosystem of local organizations that demonstrate their cumulative and interactive metabolism. The ecosystem is a network of interlinked organizations and businesses linked together, flexibly interacted through competition and cooperation to increase revenue and existence. The system converts capital from one form to another or increases the value of input capital.

In addition, Hanoi's development in the context of globalization demands not only knowledge but also creativity, innovation and a transformative mindset among government leaders.

Therefore, the government plays the role of building a capital-generating model and system to increase the capital productivity of other members in the ecosystem, helping nurture innovators to promote their creativity in resource development.

Third, establishing a capital budget framework

This involves a series of processes aimed at developing public infrastructure and projects in Hanoi. Establishing a budget framework will enhance budget management, restructure public investment and assess the effectiveness of existing public policies.

Fourth, building governance model

This is divided into four levels of governance: Strategic level (setting a long-term plan for dividing capital generation, how the city will invest in capital generation to facilitate its ecosystem to develop resources), action level (turning goals into specific plans by developing partnerships with key members of its ecosystem to build hard and soft infrastructure), analysis and systematization level, and continuous performance management level.

Fifth, positioning Hanoi in the national and regional urban network

Hanoi needs to position itself in spatial relations with provinces and cities across the country in general and in the Northern growth triangle in particular, especially connecting the gateway to the East Sea with the largest port cluster in the country, Lach Huyen Port (Hai Phong). In addition, it is necessary to have key strategic partnerships with economic centers and the capitals of eight developed countries that have comprehensive strategic partnerships with Vietnam.

By effectively implementing these solutions, we will undoubtedly establish Hanoi as a trusted representative of a country with a strong competitive edge and sustainable development both regionally and globally.

Dr. Doan Duy Khuong

Source: Vietnam Business Forum