A ‘make or break’ dilemma
By Pham Vu in HCMC
As the scorching debate over how to develop the capital city of Hanoi over the next 20 to 40 years is ongoing, one may wonder why the Ministry of Construction, the key architect of the controversial development planning project, has imported a detailed model worth about US$3 million.
While the fate of the plan – which would construct new homes for government ministries and agencies in an undeveloped outlying area west of the city and a new thoroughfare connecting that area with the existing national administration center – remains undecided, the import has left much to be thought about.
Though the model is funded by foreign companies, the placing of an order for it – while the Government has no word about it and the debate has shown no signs of easing off since it surfaced in mid-June – has put the ministry in an embarrassing situation. To avoid losing face, the ministry has no choice but to pressing on with the plan. And this in turn is seen as a challenge to those on the other side.
“While the plan is still under review and the Government has yet to approve it, the Ministry of Construction’s ordering a model (for a new Hanoi) is just like a challenge to the public and experts,” Dr. Nguyen Xuan Dien of the Vietnam Institute of Social Sciences is quoted by Thanh Nien newspaper as saying.
The uproar over the originally planned development of a new government seat in the mostly agriculture-based upland area of Ba Vi is explainable. The plan will eat into much agricultural land, especially that for rice cultivation, though it must be kept intact for food security reasons. Moreover, it will drive up speculation on land and cause a huge waste of land that would be used for the 30-km Ho Tay-Ba Vi thoroughfare, formerly known as Thang Long.
To take the issue further, when it comes to dedicated spaces like Ba Dinh as the country’s current political and administrative seat, values would be put on a collision course.
The rationale of the ministry’s planning is building the new highway would ease overload on current roads and reserving land in Ba Vi for government offices after 2050, but this will effectively divide the administration center into two that are quite far apart. Meanwhile, according to Tien Phong newspaper, Ba Dinh should always be an integrated political and administrative center of the country. Throughout the nation’s historical periods, Ba Dinh has been either the national political and administrative or administrative seat.
Though the ministry insists it has “scrapped” its old plan for relocating the national administrative center to Ba Vi as reported by the local media after the government of Hanoi City requested a stop to the plan, it is actually continuing it. In an article published on Tuanvietnam.net, Architect Phac Nguyen describes what the ministry is doing is just like “old wine, new bottle”.
Deputy Minister of Construction Nguyen Dinh Toan says the concept of the national administrative center in Ba Vi has gone since the Government submitted the plan to the National Assembly on June 15. “The national political and administrative center is still in Ba Dinh,” he is quoted by Vietnamnet.vn.
But the ministry is still keen on building Ho Tay-Ba Vi Thoroughfare to cope with traffic congestion and even serve security and defense purposes, and earmarking much land in Ba Vi for future ministry offices in line with national development. So its plan does not change in substance.
Dao Ngoc Nghiem, vice chairman of the Hanoi Architecture Planning Association, tells Vnexpress.net that the ministry previously championed the development of a new national administrative center in Ba Vi, but now that this scheme is really shelved, then there will be no reason to build such a huge road like the proposed Ho Tay-Ba Vi. The current Lang-Hoa Lac Highway and National Road 32 which join the city’s center and western part are already big enough, he says, and there also exist four beltways and a railway.
In a document passed to the Government, the city is quoted by Vietnamnet.vn as saying, “Once no construction of the new national administrative center is confirmed (by the ministry), Ho Tay-Ba Vi thoroughfare would be of no social, political and economic significance.”
Regarding the future use of land in Ba Vi for some ministry offices, Nghiem says, the capital city actually needs to reserve land for future expansion, but how it is used should not be mentioned now as this is a plan for 40 years later. “Ba Vi is more suitable for eco-spaces, not a lot of constructions,” he goes on to say.
Architect Phac Nguyen describes the plan as a waste of land since the proposed road alone would swallow up 500 hectares of rice land. “Such a request for much land will lead to wastefulness, speculation, corruption and weakening of national resources,” he says.
The debate will continue to be as hot as ever if the ministry sticks to its view as asserted by Architect Ngo Doan Duc, vice chairman of the Vietnam Architects Association, in Thanh Nien newspaper. He even casts doubt on the way the ministry prepares the capital city planning project. “(The ministry) should have consulted scientists, experts and the public over an issue of such magnitude.”
But a lot of money, time and energy have been spent to have the model for a new Hanoi and defend its view, so the ministry is facing a real dilemma on whether to go on with its plan or trash it.
The Saigon Times Daily