Tourist centre to adjust plan for sustainable development

A seminar on sustainable development for the ancient city of Hoi An concluded on April 13 with an agreement on amendments to the city's Master Plan. The amendments were made as part of a general action programme for the central city this year.
Representatives from the municipal People's Committee, Viet Nam Urban Planning and Development Association, Viet Nam Investment Gateway and the Singapore-based Foundation of the Future all helped develop the agreement.
"In the face of global changes, especially climate change, some aspects of the previous master plan were no longer suitable for the development of a city that is host of two world heritage sites," said the committee's chairman Le Van Giang.
Giang was referring to the city of Hoi An and Cham Island, known in Vietnamese as Cu Lao Cham.
"Municipal leaders deemed it necessary to amend the city's master plan and aimed to develop it as a place to be widely known for ecology, culture and tourism," he said.
Within the next two months, representatives were expected to work out specific tasks with a vision to 2030 for mapping out the city's new schemes, said the Viet Nam Investment Gateway's chief executive officer Nguyen Duy Tuong.
"An amended scheme for the city, expected to be adopted early next year, will help lure financial and human resources to serve local development and create fundamentals for us to build economic development projects as well," he said.
This year, the institutions would also suggest mechanisms to attract investments that would help serve the programme, Tuong said, adding that a project on investment funds was expected to be implemented within the next three months.
He noted that investment capital for implementing the plans could exceed the local budget and the city should seek funds from international financial institutions.
Seminar participants discussed major topics, including the initiative to transform Hoi An into a Creative Global Village, the protection of biological and cultural diversity, and the role water and the river system had in Hoi An's values.
Hoi An was recognised by UNESCO as a world cultural heritage in 1999. Cham Island was named a global biosphere reserve by the organisation last year.