Do not break or create a gap between urban and rural development

Three new highlights

The Draft Law on Urban and Rural Planning submitted to the National Assembly at the Seventh Session was assessed by many delegates as having many new points, including three outstanding new points.

Illustration photo. Source: ITN

Firstly , clearly define the urban and rural planning system including types, levels of planning and relationships with national planning, regional planning, provincial planning and specialized technical planning, ensuring unity and synchronization of the legal system.

Second , strengthen decentralization and delegation of authority in the establishment, appraisal, approval and adjustment of urban and rural planning. According to current regulations, the Ministry of Construction establishes planning for new urban areas with a population size equivalent to that of a type 3 urban area or higher. This time, the draft law has decentralized the organization of planning to People's Committees at all levels.

Third , simplify the procedures for planning, appraisal and approval to meet the requirements of improving the investment and business environment. Specifically, for medium and small-sized urban areas (types 3, 4 and 5), zoning plans will not be made, and the required contents of zoning plans will be combined and integrated into the contents of the general planning. This leads to only two levels of planning for medium and small-sized urban areas: general planning and detailed planning, reducing procedures, reducing costs and speeding up the progress of investment and construction project preparation.

Talking to the press about the draft law, Deputy Minister of Construction Nguyen Tuong Van emphasized that all three new points will contribute to improving the quality of planning, when linking the agencies and organizations that make and approve plans with the organization of planning implementation; improving the effectiveness of planning, because it will shorten the time from planning to basic construction investment. Previously, to implement a project, there must be a general plan, zoning plan, and detailed plan to organize the implementation of the project. Reducing the time to prepare planning projects and reducing the level of planning will shorten this time.

Basically agreeing with the necessity of promulgating the Law, the Economic Committee - the agency in charge of reviewing the draft Law, expressed its agreement with the purpose and viewpoints stated in the Government's Submission. Accordingly, the development of the Law aims to concretize the guidelines and policies of the Party and State, create a legal basis, a synchronous, comprehensive and unified management tool to regulate urban and rural planning activities, overcome shortcomings, limitations, inadequacies and difficulties, and obstacles in practice, meet the requirements for the new development stage of the country; enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of state management, ensure the harmony of interests of the State, the People and society.

The Draft Law was also assessed by the Economic Committee as being consistent with the provisions of the 2013 Constitution and basically compatible with relevant international treaties to which Vietnam is a member.

Harmonious development, connection between urban and rural spaces

Affirming the necessity of promulgating the Law on Urban and Rural Planning, in previous group discussions, many National Assembly deputies stated that the consolidation of regulations on urban and rural planning into one law is appropriate, aiming to ensure unity in general orientation in controlling, managing and developing urban and rural areas. In particular, there is no longer overlap in state management tasks between urban and rural areas, harmonious development and connection between urban and rural spaces, complementing the overall development of the locality, the region and the whole country.

Emphasizing one of the principles that "everything must have a plan and a strategy", Vice Chairwoman of the National Assembly Nguyen Thi Thanh stated that the important thing is how to design and organize the implementation of these plans scientifically and coherently to ensure feasibility, no overlap and convenience in both management and implementation, avoiding the situation of wasting a lot of money and time on planning work, asking for opinions from experts, sectors, levels and the people on planning, but with low efficiency.

Regarding the development of rural planning in conjunction with urban planning, Vice Chairwoman of the National Assembly Nguyen Thi Thanh said that it is necessary to pay attention to the development of small urban planning of type 4, type 5 and suburban areas, ensuring that the relationship between urban planning and rural planning is clear in function but does not disrupt or create a gap between urban development and rural development. In the context of increasing urbanization, urbanization should not affect the countryside - the place that preserves the most unique cultural identity of the Vietnamese people.

While the draft Law has updated the development trends of new urban areas, National Assembly Deputy, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Phan Van Mai also pointed out that there are still many new urban models such as: industrial service urban areas, creative knowledge urban areas, multi-center urban areas, satellite urban areas, station urban areas (associated with the urban development model oriented towards public transport - TOD)... Or with rural planning, there are currently trends of forming "villages in the city", green urban areas, ecological urban areas... Therefore, it is necessary to continue to carefully study to fully and specifically regulate the new urban development trends in the draft Law.

Noting that the draft Law has not mentioned the provisions on "special administrative-economic unit planning" and "urban planning, rural planning on islands" of our country, National Assembly Deputy Le Thi Thanh Lam (Hau Giang) said that "special administrative-economic units" have been stipulated in Clause 1, Article 110 of the 2013 Constitution and stipulated in Clause 4, Article 2 of the Law on Organization of Local Government 2015. Regarding territory, in addition to the mainland, our country is also a country with many islands, including many large islands such as: Phu Quoc (Kien Giang), Van Don (Quang Ninh), Cat Ba (Hai Phong), Con Dao (Ba Ria - Vung Tau), Phu Quy (Binh Thuan)... On these islands, there are both urban areas (towns) and rural areas (districts, communes) with special conditions in terms of geography, tourism, natural resources related to socio-economic development, ensuring security, national defense. room.

Therefore, delegate Le Thi Thanh Lam proposed to add the types of "special administrative-economic unit planning" and "urban planning, rural planning on islands" to the urban planning and rural planning system.

After 14 years of implementing the Law on Urban Planning and 9 years of implementing the Law on Construction, many achievements have been made, contributing to improving the quality of space, architecture, landscape, and living environment. However, after a long period of implementation, along with new requirements of development practice, limitations and inadequacies have been revealed, which need to be studied, revised, supplemented, and improved. Integrating the Law on Urban Planning and the Law on Construction into the draft Law on Urban Planning and Rural Planning is necessary to resolve the current planning inadequacies. Emphasizing this, National Assembly Deputy Le Huu Tri (Khanh Hoa) said that with policies defining the urban and rural planning system at the national, provincial, district, and commune levels; regulations on the order and procedures for making, appraising, and approving plans in the draft Law... have fundamentally resolved the current planning inadequacies.

One of the contents that many delegates noted was that the drafting agency continued to adhere to a multi-sectoral, inclusive approach and a long-term, comprehensive, strategic vision to ensure the synchronization, unity, completeness, and integration of the planning system, closely linked to rural planning and urban planning.

Source: https://daibieunhandan.vn/quoc-hoi-va-cu-tri/khong-pha-vo-hay-tao-khoang-cach-giua-phat-dien-do-thi-va-nong-thon-i377123/