A corner of Thu Duc City
Speaking at the seminar, Director of the Department of Planning and Architecture in Ho Chi Minh City Nguyen Thanh Nha said city administrations supposed that they should listen to opinions of businesspersons, experts and people from all walks of life for setting up a project for the development of Thu Duc City and HCMC also.
According to Mr. Nguyen Thanh Nha, the city need comments from businesses and people during the implementation of the project to make the plan better and more transparent.
Dr. Nguyen Do Dung, General Director of EnCity Company, the consulting group won the first prize for the contest ‘The idea of planning the development of a highly interactive and innovative urban area in the East of Ho Chi Minh City’ organized by HCMC authorities, said that Thu Duc City should work towards four matters in the process of construction and development. They are a high-tech applied economy, Ho Chi Minh City's key creative areas, a trade center of the surrounding areas such as Bien Hoa, Da Lat, Vung Tau which attracts high-quality human resources from all corners of the country.
At the seminar, most of the participants said that, for Thu Duc City to create a breakthrough in the coming time, its authorities must take heed of transport infrastructure investment, creating a fast and convenient connection between the cities and regions as well as human-to-human interaction, business-to-business, business-to-government through a modern and synchronous telecommunications system.
Truong Minh Huy Vu, Director of the Software Technology Park under Ho Chi Minh City National University, said that the Thu Duc city plan has been put forward in the context that the economy of the country in general and Ho Chi Minh City, in particular, are recovering from the coronavirus pandemic. The city authorities are continuing to pour investment in scores of transport infrastructure projects connected with Ho Chi Minh City such as Belt Road No.2 and 3.
In the process of developing a planning project for Thu Duc City, according to Mr. Vu, three key factors play a key role namely human resource, infrastructure, and technology. Thu Duc City is home to many universities, institutes, and high-tech zones that attract qualified human resources who focus on studying and working quite a lot, this is an advantage for development in the coming time.
Thu Duc City has 211.56 square kilometers of natural area, and its current population is 1,013,795.
The area in Thu Duc City will be developed into a creative hub and innovation center in its planning to 2040, contributing to increasing the economic efficiency and residents’ quality of life.
Some 1,000 hectares is the total area devoted to high-tech manufacturing, with 10 percent of the area for innovative startups while 2,100 ha is an area for parks and open spaces. Moreover, the city administration ensures to meet 50 percent of people’s travel needs by public transport, such as metro trains, on-demand transport services, and other green transport models.
Many experts also agreed that transport infrastructure planning will help Thu Duc City make breakthroughs in its development in the coming time. Currently, many trucks carry goods at ports passing through Thu Duc city causing traffic jams and increasing business costs. Mr. Le Hoang Chau, Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City Real Estate Association, proposed to restore the planning of an overhead railway transporting goods from Song Than Station to Cat Lai Port.
Ms. Luu Thi Thanh Mau, General Director of Phuc Khang Group said that Thu Duc city is adjacent to a quite diverse system of rivers and canals. Therefore, in the process of building the planning project, it is necessary to preserve the river landscape and develop navigation routes. Importantly, it is necessary to study and develop a green urban model.
Because in the face of threats of climate change, resource and energy depletion scenarios, strategies for environmentally friendly sustainable urban development become urgent; hence, the development of green cities is an inevitable direction to achieve the goal of sustainable urban development, said Ms. Mau.
Currently, Thu Duc City is focusing on implementing the work of proposing and submitting Thu Duc City master plan project for approval to serve as an important basis to lay the foundation for the construction of an highly interactive and innovative urban area in the East. The city is therefore calling for investment resources for development, especially calling for investment in eight functional centers.
In addition, the city is implementing the project of building a smart city and digital transformation between 2021 and 2025 with the focus on building e-Government towards Digital Government, a shared database as well as applying information technology to modernize the public administration and administration of Thu Duc city in order to improve the efficiency and quality of service to people and businesses.
In the process of making the general planning project of Thu Duc city to 2040, the Thu Duc City Government needs to listen to opinions from business people, experts and city dwellers.
