Co-organised by the Ministry of Construction coordinated with the Vietnam Urban Forum, the Vietnam Urban Planning and Development Association, and the Association of Cities of Vietnam, the webinar featured the participation of experts from international organisations such as the French Development Agency (AFD), the World Bank (WB), the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), and the Swiss Cooperation Office in Vietnam (SECO), along with representatives of ministries, central branches, localities.
Speaking at the workshop, Deputy Minister of Construction Le Quang Hung emphasized that since 2008, the Prime Minister of Vietnam has decided to denote November 8 each year as "Vietnam's Urban Day" to honour cities, emphasising the central role of the economic growth engine of cities.
The webinar is an opportunity to exchange and share experiences on urban development models towards sustainable development, contributing to the realisation of Vietnam's socio-economic development strategies in the 2021-2030 period.
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Deputy Minister of Construction Le Quang Hung delivered the opening speech at the workshop.
According to Chairman of the Vietnam Urban Planning and Development Association Tran Ngoc Chinh, through the recent outbreaks, the requisition of resettlement housing projects, schools, stadiums, and sports complexes has taken place to serve as isolation areas, establish a field hospital in Thu Dung, and treat patients with Covid-19. Facing the worsening effects of climate change, it shows the need to solve the problem of balancing the demand for land.
It is necessary to have reserve space, which can be used flexibly in case of large-scale natural disasters and epidemics. In fact, the integration of elements of epidemic prevention and control along with natural disaster response into the process of urban construction and development planning is still left open and unnoticed. For sustainable development, it requires must have an overall view, integrating new requirements in urban planning and development on all three aspects of economy, society and environment.
According to Dr. Tim McGrath from the Mekong Delta Climate Resilience Programme co financed by GIZ-SECO, the project is supporting Vietnam to perfect the legal framework and policy on urban adaptation to climate change; propose the application of the sponge city model; set the price of drainage services and implement roadmap towards cost recovery; develop orientations for drainage and wastewater treatment in the Mekong Delta according to Decision No. 1055/QD-TTg; and apply urban rainwater drainage model in a sustainable way and study the feasibility of anti-flooding infrastructure works.
At the workshop, local delegates and urban development experts at home and abroad shared experiences, practical lessons, and more comprehensively identified new challenges for cities and urban areas; contributing ideas to build, renovate and rebuild Vietnamese cities with solutions strong enough to withstand the impacts of climate change, natural disasters, and epidemics, especially the Covid-19 pandemic.
