The Chi Minh City People's Council today coordinated with the Department of Information and Communications and Ho Chi Minh City Television to organize the program 'People Ask - The Government Answers' in December, with the theme 'Management and development of public parks and trees'.
At the program, voters asked many questions related to the development and planning of green parks in Ho Chi Minh City. For instance, lecturer Dinh Quang Diep from Ho Chi Minh City University of Agriculture and Forestry raised a question about uneven green space distribution in inner city and central districts. According to him, there is a paradox that downtown areas have a larger number of parks than new districts or suburban areas even though new districts or suburban areas have a larger green parkland fund.
He was wondering whether this situation will improve or not in the project to adjust the city's general planning to 2040, with a vision to 2060.
Answering the question, Mr. Dang Phu Thanh, Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Construction, said that in order to achieve the urban greenery target set by Ho Chi Minh City, the department has recently coordinated with localities to review land funds. According to the department’s statistics, about 11,369 hectares of parkland and green trees are located in the city. The Department advised the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee to promulgate a program to develop public green parks for the period 2020-2030.
As per the planning of public green park development, 150 hectares of green parkland will be projected in the period 2020-2025 while trees will be planted in 450 hectares from 2026 to 2030 to reach the target that the overall green space per person in the city one square meters. In the coming time, the department will continue to advise city authorities on the development of green parks.
Director of the Department of Planning and Investment of Ho Chi Minh City Nguyen Thanh Nha added that the general planning project as well as the subdivision planning project have fully identified the criteria for planning public green parks. Though the targets may not be high, the department will strive to achieve the targets. At the same time, he affirmed that parks will be formed evenly throughout the districts. Ho Chi Minh City has 600 zoning and green park planning projects evenly distributed across these projects.
Voter Doan Thai Duong from District 10 was concerned about the encroachment of green public spaces for business. Over the years, the city asked to open park doors so that people can freely roam in the parks. However, people still usurp park areas for business causing green areas and beautiful scenery to shrink significantly.
Deputy Director of Ho Chi Minh City Department of Construction Dang Phu Thanh informed that currently, the law does not prohibit business exploitation activities in public parks. However, the park is land managed by the State, exploitation must ensure regulations on public property management as well as conform to the detailed planning of the park's overall area.
Recently, the department has coordinated with relevant units to review and advise the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee to direct park owners and managers to strictly implement these regulations.
Regarding the plan to develop green parks in Ho Chi Minh City in the period 2020-2025, Mr. Dang Phu Thanh said that it is expected that by 2025, there will be over 100 hectares of green parks. To ensure the proposed plan, the Department of Construction coordinates with relevant units to advise the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee to invest in developing green parks.
Managing the program, Head of the Urban Committee of Ho Chi Minh City People's Council Nguyen Thi Thanh Van said that Ho Chi Minh City set a target of adding 150 hectares of public parkland and 10 hectares of public green areas by 2025, planting and renovating 30,000 trees to increase the greening rate.
In the coming time, the Standing Committee of the People's Council of Ho Chi Minh City requests the City People's Committee to call for social contributions and mobilize all financial resources from all economic sectors to carry out the Government's current project to plant 1 billion trees and the city's plan to plant 10 million trees in the period 2021-2025.
