Hoi An targets becoming a tourist, cultural and eco-city

Vietnam Economic News' Ngo Hoa & Hong Hanh spoke with Hoi An City People's Committee Chairman Le Van Giang about the city's target of becoming an ecological, cultural and tourist urban area.
How will the of the old part of Hoi An be preserved?
As a world heritage site with priceless cultural values, Hoi An has been implementing consistent policies to harmonize its development in combination with its preservation. The Prime Minister recently approved an overall plan for preserving and bringing into play the cultural values of Hoi An in relation to urban and tourism development in the 2012-2015 period. This will pave the way for Hoi An to fulfill its target of becoming an ecological, cultural and tourist city. The city has agreed on many solutions and policies to improve social welfare and security. Hoi An continues to give prominence to restoring and bringing into play its traditional culture, both tangible and intangible cultural values including trade practices, elements of daily life, festivals and ancestor and spirit worship plus folk games such as human chess and bai choi (singing while playing cards), the peaceful ambience of moonlight nights, and more. Hoi An is a safe place at both day and night. These achievements are due to efforts of the city authorities and people, which contributed to transforming Hoi An into an attractive, safe and friendly tourist destination for domestic and foreign visitors.
What challenges has Hoi An faced when following an ecological city development model?
It is not simple to develop the city comprehensively while harmonizing heritage preservation and urban development , while attempting to provide for all the demands of modern life and bringing into play Hoi An's cultural values. Developing Hoi An into an ecological city has become an objective need in the context of increasing urbanization. Located on a river bank and close to an estuary, Hoi An frequently suffered from natural disasters and climate change that has continuously affected the city's historic sites. This is why Hoi An chose an ecological city development model to harmonize cultural preservation and development. It has been preserving cultural values in development and it has also been developing to preserve cultural and historical values. Assuring ecological balance, sustainable development, promoting economic growth and improving the quality of life of its citizens are something that the city pursues.
What has Hoi An done to adopt a successful urban management strategy?
Hoi An will further transform into an ecological, cultural and tourist city on a sustainable basis, while its cultural values will be brought into play and preserved. The city's old quarter will be preserved with concrete policies and through community education. Old streets will be improved and the city's urban area will be expanded towards developing and expanding the amount of area with trees.
Many concrete policies were implemented systematically and in compliance with the community's wishes. The city has regulations on managing, improving and protecting its old quarter, production and trading activities in Region I and its environs, traditional craft villages, ecological villages and architectural and urban projects and space.
Although Hoi An is part of a province it needs policies for a city recognized as a world cultural heritage site. The implementation of many of Hoi An's development and preservation projects was not as effective as expected as it needs to be promoted with policies by authorities at higher levels. Management and financial policies and tasks related to old quarter preservation and use, infrastructure and environment improvement, urban space expansion and solving problems of people's daily lives were clarified. However, there are many more things to do.
Hoi An needs a legal framework for overall urban planning including urban space, environmental, technical and transport infrastructure and sector plans that will be combined to satisfy the demand for developing Hoi An into a sustainable ecological, cultural and tourist urban area. To do this, Hoi An needs special assistance from the Government, Quang Nam Province, sectors and international organizations.
Hoi An's authorities and people are determined to protect Hoi An as a world cultural heritage site and transform the city into an ecological, cultural and tourist urban area in order to more confidently embrace international integration.
Tourism has been a major strength of Hoi An in terms of its economic development so it will be strongly developed through regional and international connectivity. Developing high quality tourism related to preserving and bringing into play the city's cultural values is a strategy adopted by Hoi An's authorities. The city has plans for promoting community tourism and at the same time properly exploiting cultural, festival, ecological, craft village and islands tours and diversifying the range of tourist offerings. The Cu Lao Cham World Biosphere Reserve will be strictly preserved and properly managed.