LookAtVietnam – The Chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee Nguyen The Thao talked with VNExpress about the capital city’s planning.

Hanoi’s Chairman Nguyen The Thao.

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As vice chairman of the State Assessment Council of Hanoi’s Planning, how do you envisage Hanoi in 2030?

We are building Hanoi as a central city surrounded by satellite cities. The city is paving the way for the development of up to 10 satellite cities with up to 10 million people.

Hanoi will invest in Xuan Mai, Hoa Lac, Phu Xuyen, Soc Son, Me Linh and others to turn them into satellite cities. In addition, we need to build rural urban centers so that farmers don’t have to flock into the inner city to work.

Those are our future plans, but we have to consider the area of land that we have and other necessary conditions.

What about the scale of the national administrative center in Hanoi, which is about to be submitted to the Prime Minister?

We have to set criteria for PPJ (a consulting group made up of the US design and architecture firm Perkins Eastman and Posco Engineering &Construction and Jina from South Korea) to establish a foundation for planning. Many ministries have narrow offices and out-dated facilities and they need new spaces.

It will be very convenient for the people if ministries and government agencies are in the same area. Of course, specialized ministries like the Ministry of Defense may not be located there.

In you opinion, which area is suitable for the national administrative center?

If we want to build an administrative urban center, we will have to bring the national administrative functions out of the city’s hub. If we only restructure administrative agencies, we will only need to relocate them together in the city’s hub.

The PPJ group suggested choosing one site in the area between West Lake and Ba Vi to build the national administrative center. Some proposed locating it near West Lake because this site has beautiful scenery and is very convenient. However, the vacant area is only sufficient for the West Lake project.

The Prime Minister asked to add the Red River planning into the comprehensive planning of Hanoi. We have neglected the Red River for a long time. Now we must see the river as an opportunity to develop our urban area. South Korea has helped Vietnam research this project and we will use the results to make our decisions.

With an expanded capital and expected population of 10 million in 2030, will Hanoi build a second airport?

The proposal to build a second airport is not so much because of the narrowness of Noi Bai airport, but because this is an airport reserved for large aircraft. However, Hanoi will not be the transit point or an economic center like HCM City. In some countries, the airports in the capital cities are small while airports in other cities are big.

The plan is to build a second airport north of Hanoi; another airport does not need to be locate within Hanoi.

VietNamNet/VNE