The total amount of people living in Vietnam's urban areas is projected to reach 30.4mil by 2010 and it is estimated that there will be 46mil urban dwellers by 2020.

Increasing urban populations causes regular traffic congestion in major cities like Hanoi.

The urbanisation rate is expected to increase to 33% by 2010 and 45% by 2020.

In 2000, 19mil of the country's 80mil people lived in urban areas, with an urbanisation rate of 22%.

In that year, urban land accounted for 63,300ha, or about 0.2% of the country's total area. The figure is expected to rise to 243,000ha or 0.74% by 2010 and to 460,000ha, or 1.4%, by 2020.

Director of the Centre for Environmental Protection and Sustainabte Development Professor Dr. Le Hong Ke said that Vietnam had formulated specific policies on infrastructure development in its socio-economic development strategy.

These included water supply and sewage systems, electricity and post and telecommunications, particularly those at the national, regional and provincial levels.

Ke said that a good plan for future development was an important factor in shaping a sound urbanisation process.

Urbanisation was part and parcel of the country's industrialisation and modernisation, he said. However, the urbanisation process has further widened the development gap between urban and rural areas.

He said that the flow of migrants from rural to urban areas had put pressure on the already poor infrastructure in major cities. This was also one of the factors driving property prices in urban areas to "artificial" heights.

Ke was appreciative of the Government's policies to give special treatment to project developers involved in infrastructure construction with concession credit schemes through Official Development Assistance (ODA), or the State budget. Ke said that most of the fending for the country's infrastructure system came from ODA funds.

Ke said that Vietnam had set the target to irradicate slum dwellings in urban areas by 2020.

Following that dictum, while building many more new towns, Vietnam was paying attention to restoring or upgrading old streets, residential areas and slums.

Ke said that any urban development plan had to, under the master plan for urban development by 2020 and the sustainable development strategy, satisfy the three conditions of establishing good living, work and relaxation environments.

Sustainable urbanisation, Ke said, should be understood as a combination of sustainable development between the economy, society and eco-biological environmental sustainability.

The urbanisation process would serve as a bridge linking urban and rural areas and close the gap between these two areas, Ke added.

Vietnam has 708 cities and towns at present, of which major cities including Hanoi, HCM City, Da Nang, Hai Phong and Can Tho.

(Source: Viet Nam News)