Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am from Ha Noi Architecture - Planning Department and in today seminar, I would like to speak about the orientation on the urban development planning and the transport system in Ha Noi city by the year 2020.

As you know, Ha Noi is the city with nearly 1,000 years history and has a special importance to the country, which has been identified by many Governmental documents "Ha Noi is the heart of the country, a political, administrative, cultural, educational, and economic and international relations center nationwide.

The latest general master plan for Ha Noi development has been approved by the Prime Minister in 1998. And to boost up Ha Noi's urban socio-economic development, the Government has also issue some legal document especially for Ha Noi, allowing specialized regimes and regulations which are applicable only in Ha Noi to speed up its development. Over the past 10 years, Ha Noi has experienced a stable and smooth growth with annual GDP growth rate of around 10%.

It's quite natural that during its development, Ha Noi did encounter many difficulties as it is a capital city of a country which is still at the initial stage of development and the difficulties are really urgent and many of them require thorough and careful study for optimal solutions.

About the directions for Ha Noi's development plan, first of all, I would like to speak briefly about Ha Noi's present situation. Within its administrative land area, by international standards, Ha Noi is not a very big city as its natural land acreage is 927.39 km², including 7 inner city districts with acreage of 82.78 km², accounting for about 9% of total area and about 844 km² of suburban area. The city's population is around 2.8 million people and average population density is around 30 people/hectares. There is about 1.6 million people living in the inner city area with the registered population of over 1.4 million people and density of nearly 200 persons/ha.

Ha Noi, as the capital city of Vietnam and with the role identified by the government, is the core of the capital urban area. In this capital urban area, Ha Noi city, which is expanded from the present Ha Noi inner city area, is considered as the central city and surrounding this central city will be many other cities developing within the radius of 30-50 km. Some of the cities that should be taken into consideration in the new capital urban area are firstly the series of city in the west from Xuan Mai-Hoa Lac-Son Tay and even Mieu Mon in the future, about 30km west of Ha Noi. At present, this series of cities are entering their initial stage of development. It is estimated by 2020, population of the cities will reach 1 million people, residing in the western acreage of about 17,000 hectares. At present, the core of this series of cities is Hoa Lac, which is at developing stage. The Government has decided to implement some vital projects in Hoa Lac in the short term, including Ha Noi National University project, National High-tech Park project, Industrial Zones and Vietnam ethnic groups' cultural village zone, etc. these are very important projects which will lay the first foundation for the area's development.

The second series of city in the capital urban area is the one in the north of Ha Noi, including Soc Son, Xuan Hoa, Vinh Yen, etc. These are neighboring urban areas with close linkage with each other. It is expected that by 2020, population in the area is about 0.5 million and acreage is about 7,500 hectares. This series of city will be developed basing on some existing townships and urban areas such as Vinh Yen city, Xuan Hoa Township, Soc Son Township and Noi Bai international airport.

Apart from the above 2 important series of city, there will be some other surrounding Ha Noi as satellite cities such as Phu Ly, Hung Yen in the south, Hai Duong and later Pha Lai, Uong Bi in the east, Bac Giang in the northeast and Thai Nguyen in the north and Viet Tri in the farther west. Total population of the cities will be about 4.5-5 million by 2020. The formation of a capital urban area aims at the following objectives:

The core city, as you can see in the drawings, shall be developed basing on Ha Noi's present urban area. Ha Noi's present urban area is mainly in the south of West Lake and south of Red river, including 7 urban districts with population of around 1.6 million and acreage of about 8,300 hectares. The city can be said as the core, accounting for a half of urban population of the capital urban area. And it is also the driving force for the capital urban area's development as well as for each satellite city's development. Major development directions of the core city are towards the east, west and southwest on the present Tu Liem district's area, toward the north on the present Dong Anh district's area meaning over Red river to the north and partly to the east, on the present Gia Lam district's area. Population of the core city by 2020 is expected to reach 2.5-2.7 million people, residing on an area of about 25.000 hectares with population density of about 100 person/ha, only half of the present inner city density.

By urban characteristics, the core city can be divided into the following zone:

Development restriction zone is the area within ring road No2, by Red river in the east and West Lake in the north. The zone has a long development history which is closely connected to the development of Ha Noi city. This area includes Ha Noi's old citadel in the northwest. The area has nearly one thousand year of development and can be said as the accumulation of Ha Noi's whole development process. In this area also situate the most important functional zones of the city, including the national political area in Ba Dinh, where national governmental agencies such as National Assembly, Government reside and the city's key administrative and commercial and service center around Hoan Kiem lake. This area is highly densely populated and at present, population is about 950,000 people housing in an area of 3,800 hectares. Major development directions for this zone are preservation, revitalization and protection of urban identities and characteristics as this urban area's development origins from Viet Nam's early development stages and improvement of urban quality through 1) reduction of population density by relocation of the people to outer area and it is expected that the population will reduced to 800,000 people by 2020; 2) relocation of industrial establishments and other facilities not fitting the functions of a core city out of the city centre; and control the increase of construction speed and high-storied buildings in the zone. Future facilities to be supplemented for the zone will be mainly social and technical infrastructural facilities and increase of greeneries, urban spaces to improve environment and landscape.

The second zone is expansive development zone on the right bank of Red river. The outer area surrounding the development restriction zone will compose of the expansive development zone. This zone will be developed in the south of Red river basing on the existing residential area and trunks such as Noi Bai international Airport-Ha Noi trunks, NH32 from the west to HN, NH6 from the southwest, NH 1 from the south to Ha Noi. This zone, with development scope of about 8,800 ha of acreage and expected population of 700,000-900,000 people by 2020. Many important functional areas of the city will be locating in this area. In the west of West Lake in Xuan La, Xuan Dinh, there will be a new center of the core city in the south of Red river. This will be both administrative and commercial and service center to diversify, share and create the attractiveness to the new urban areas surrounding Ha Noi. Apart from the center, the area will have some other important areas such as Diplomat Zone, which is currently under construction, National Sport Complex, which is now being construction in preparation for Sea Games, Universities Area in the northwest and west of the city. There will also be large park areas such as the recreational and entertainment area around West Lake to exploit its advantageous location and the benefits of a large city in the urban area. In the southwest of the city, there will also be a large park area consisting of many parks which are situated close to each other, such as cultural park, Semi-wild Park and historical park. Another park area will be in Yen So area in the south and parks, greeneries and recreational areas can also be found along Red river.

The third zone will be the new city area on the left bank of Red river. This are is basically completely newly developed, apart from in Gia Lam area, where some residential area has already been in existence. Population of the area by 2020 is expected to reach 1 million, over an area of about 12,500 ha. Directions for this are will be development of a new, modern, comprehensive and complete urban area with large residential areas and administrative, cultural, commercial and servicing centers and the two largest centers will be in Son Trach and Phuong Trach. In this area also situate many national relics such as Co Loa, which is the capital of the ancient Vietnam of over 2,000 years ago. This will be a very important historical and cultural place of interest in the North. And Van Tri recreational and entertainment area will be developed in this zone on the existing Van Tri swamp. This zone is currently entering its development stage.

So for Ha Noi's 3 zones, the development steps will be concentration on Red river's right bank area in initial development stage as we know that there are at present dozens of investment projects in the area and it is developing robustly; in the second stage, focus will be in the area in Red river's north, which is currently undergoing preliminary steps and having initial preparation activities for its development in future years, for example, the North Thang Long IZ has been developed, urban infrastructure is being invested and the backbone road of this north area is being prepared, etc. for facilitation of the area's development. It is expected that this area will undergo robust development from 2007-2008 onwards.

About the industrial zones: Ha Noi's 9 inner city-situated IZs shall not be expanded but intensively invested for shifting the industries to environment-friendly ones and shifting part of them into transacting centers and offices, etc. while Ha Noi's industrial development shall rely on 7 new and large IZs locating around the city, including Sai Dong in the east over an area of 700 ha, North Thang Long over an area of 300ha, South Thang Long on nearly 300 ha, Cau Dien, Dong Anh and Soc Son with total acreage of about 2,000 ha. The priority industries for development in Ha Noi are high tech, environment-friendly, compact and material and material and fuel intensive ones as well as export-oriented and local market-attached industries such as IT, electronics, textile, mechanics, new materials and high standard building materials, etc. Apart from large and concentrate IZ, we also consider establishing small-scaled industrial clusters locating in residential areas together with developing traditional craft villages. In Ha Noi areas, there are many craft villages, which are marked with yellow in this map, and these are encouraged in preservation and development to preserve a cultural characteristic as well as to create jobs for local people; and this can also be consider as a measure to reduce traveling demand into the city.

About the city's public center system:

The city's public center system is organized in a classified manner, including national centers, municipal centers, regional centers and low level centers closely attached to daily living demand. I have mentioned national and municipal centers above, which include Ba Dinh political center, Hoan Kiem administrative, commercial and servicing center, the large administrative, commercial, servicing and financial center in the west of West Lake, the commercial, servicing and possibly partly administrative center in the north of Red river and Son Trach. These are 5 national and municipal public centers in Ha Noi area. Apart from these 5 national and municipal centers, there are many regional centers locating in the districts areas and urban functional areas. And services demand for the people are satisfied within the residential areas.

The city's greeneries and park system is also a very important component of the city. Greeneries and parks are also arranged by classification, including large greeneries areas such as in the south, southwest, east and north in Co Loa, Van Tri. Apart from these large-scaled greeneries and parks areas, there are also many regional level greeneries and parks in combination with the greeneries in residential areas and units.

Orientations for transport development in Ha Noi's urban area:

Firstly, I would like to speak about some of our perspectives regarding transport system development in Ha Noi area.

In Ha Noi's transport system, internal transport includes 4 systems:

Roads: Ha Noi is currently the hub gathering 7 national highways: NH1 from the north border and linking to other provinces in the south, NH 6 to Hoa Binh and linking to Northwestern region, NH 32 in the west linking to Son Tay and the western area, NH 2 and NH3. All these national highways will be expanded to 4-6 lanes and on key direction, parallel highways shall be built, which would mainly be expressways paralleling the highways. Apart from these highways, to strengthen the relationship within the capital urban area, some centripetal roads will be built, directly linking to the cities in the area, such as Vinh Yen-Ha Noi road in the northeast, Ha Noi- Hung Yen road in the southeast, etc.

Ha Noi will also a member in trans-Asia road project and in Vietnam, the road will run basing on the existing NH1. Via the trans-Asia road, the road will enhance Ha Noi's international relationship to other regional countries by road.

Railway: the ring rail system will be constructed surrounding Ha Noi city. The centripetal rail through the city will be maintained with Ha Noi station in the city centre, mainly for international train and Ha Noi-HCMC trains. The system of rail stations, cargo and passenger hubs shall be arranged around Ha Noi. In Ha Noi area, national railway lines are expected to be developed as dual gauge lines in the area near Ha Noi for the operation of adjacent lines linking Ha Noi with other cities in the capital urban area. At present, there are also projects for constructing express railway lines at the speed of over 200 km/hour linking Ha Noi and HCMC, Ha Noi-Hai Phong and Ha Noi-Lang Son.

Airway: Noi Bai airport in the north of Ha Noi remains to be Ha Noi's major international airport. And in the future, Mieu Mon international airport will be developed about 40km southwest of Ha Noi. And in Ha Noi area, there will also be several airports serving domestic lines such as Gia Lam airport, Bach Mai airport.

Inland waterway: Ha Noi is by Red River's side, thus the river needs to be arranged, dredged towards canalization of the Red river to exploit the river for inland waterway transport, which is mainly cargo transport. From Ha Noi, cargo transport routes by river cum sea-going vessels shall be developed and following Red river to ports in the south of Ha Noi such as Khuyen Luong port, Pha Den port. And containerized cargo transport routes from deepwater sea ports in the east of Ha Noi such as Cai Lan port, Hai Phong port by container transporting barges to eastern area of Ha Noi shall be formed and to create the direct connectivity with international waterway routes.

About urban transport:

As I have said above, Ha Noi urban transport system shall be developed on the viewpoint of taking public passenger transport as the key mode. By 2020, public passenger transport is expected to accommodate 50-60% traffic volume in urban areas, especially in the central city; and 30% by 2010. And in 2002, as reported by Mr. Dung in the morning session, Ha Noi has satisfied about 10% of the demand.

Types of vehicles for public passenger transport in Ha Noi will include: bus, urban railway (including various types of urban railways such as elevated rail, ground rail and underground, depending on each urban area's conditions) and the railways linking Ha Noi with satellite cities in the capital urban areas. And in the further future, the tram system for Ha Noi area will be considered and developed.

The works for the first stage have been carried out over the past few years, that is development of the bus system and at present, the development of initial lines of urban railway system are being done.

About organization of the road network in the central city area, the road system is classified into urban expressway, urban major roads, inter-regional road, regional road and feeder road with different scope. Due to Ha Noi's characteristics, Ha Noi's road system are organized including the ring road system (we have the ring road No2, which will be developed farther to the other side of Red River and ring road No3, which is being formed and in the further future, the ring road No.4 will also be built), centripetal trunks basing on the existing national roads and centripetal roads. And within the area separated by the ring roads and centripetal trunks, the road network shall be arranged as square network, while the ring roads No3 and No4 is planned to be built as urban expressways.

A problem of Ha Noi urban transport is as soon as Ha Noi expands over Red River is bridges. This will be a critical issue that requires immediate attention. At present, there are currently 3 bridges over the river: Thang Long bridge, Long Bien bridge and Chuong Duong bridge. And we plan to build 4 more bridges over Red river in Ha Noi area from now to 2020 to link together two development areas in the north and south of the river. These bridges are: NHat Tan bridge, Tu Lien, Vinh Tuy and Thanh Tri bridges.

The problems and some major planning orientations for Ha Noi transport system include both long-term and immediate issues. The immediate issues include:

First of all, with the orientation of taking public passenger transport as the key mode, we can see that Ha Noi's traffic mode development up to 2 years ago had been deviating from the orientation. Thus one of the urgent measures which must be carried out immediately and in fact, the city has been implementing in the past 2 years is to effect measures to change the development directions of urban transport by boosting up public passenger transport development, whose development progress and results have been reported to you by Mr. Dung in the morning session. The second measure is controlling the development of private traffic; this issue has been tackled, Ha Noi has been implementing measures to control the increase of private vehicles and in the upcoming time, Ha Noi is applying many other measures to limit first of all the increase of motorcycles and later private cars. It can be said that Ha Noi is presently in the peak stage of motorcycles development, but at the same time, there have been signs of the first stage of car development. And measures to control the development of cars right from this early stage is also very critical.

The second orientation is to utilize efficiently the existing transport infrastructure. The existing transport infrastructure, in terms of scope and quality, hasn't met urban using and developing demand. However, on the other hand, the existing system hasn't been efficiently utilized. This is yet another issue that must be raised and addressed urgently. There are solutions to this problem as in many reports in the morning session such as traffic management, riding manner improvement, staggered working hours arrangement and road system maintenance and quality improvement, etc.

The third issue is development of the transport infrastructures. Some focuses in transport infrastructure development are: development of transport infrastructure must facilitate public passenger transport development; secondly, development of transport infrastructure must facilitate socio-economic development and especially urban development. And measures for urban development are considered fundamental solutions to transport issues themselves. It can be said that many transport problem in Ha Noi that are presently urgently critical were in fact due to excessive concentration of population and activities in a confined inner city area. Balanced urban development measures, relocation of people to outer newly developed areas and reduction of population concentration in the inner area shall be basic solutions to the problem. In addition, in urban development, appropriate distribution of the relationship between working place and living place, living place with commercial and servicing centers shall permit reduction of traveling demand. These measures are long-term but fundamental to solve urban transport problem from its roots.

The forth orientation in infrastructure development is focusing on the hot spots. As we can see, Ha Noi is presently expanding some major trunks and especially frequently congested intersections.

The fifth orientation is closely link transport infrastructure development with urban development stages. As reported, the steps in Ha Noi urban development are at the same time the orientations and stages for infrastructure development.

The sixth issue is development and restructuring of the city, including controlling the scope of the central city through development of the capital urban area as said above, and restructuring the city's structure. And to support all above orientations, a corresponding system of policies and legislation is needed.

These are some major problems and issues facing Ha Noi and I wish that from this seminar and futures seminars on Ha Noi transport planning, we can have the assistance, contribution and exchanges of opinions from domestic and foreign experts. Thank you for your attention.