Cultural Heritage and Urban Development

Professor Dr. Dang Hung Vo says that urbanization is a corollary of industrialization and modernization, while urban development is a major part of the country's development strategy in the industrialization and modernization period.
This corollary is not only seen in Vietnam but also other developing countries and countries where economic transformations are underway, he says. Urbanization here in Vietnam is facing a number of difficulties related to land, compensation, cultural heritage preservation and more, the professor says.
Urbanization is rapidly underway in Vietnam, with a new urban area appearing in monthly and the urbanization rate having increased from 20 percent in 1999 to almost 30 percent (according to the rate of urban population). There are many cultural and historical sites that have yet to be discovered yet, while urbanization is something that deters these sites' conservation. There are historical sites including archaeological heritage which has been damaged by unplanned or state sanctioned construction. The Dai La citadel historical site, located along Hoang Hoa Tham Street in Ba Dinh in Hanoi, which has been affected by the construction of a new road, is strong evidence of this. Similar situations can be seen in Ho Chi Minh City, the old capital of Hue and other localities.
The Ho Chi Minh City Urban Development Management Support Centre (PADDI) says that urbanization has a number of negative impacts on heritage, and that the faster the economy develops the more difficult heritage preservation will be. In the interests of cultural heritage protection, it is important to develop urban areas consistently and on a sustainable basis, PADDI says.
PADDI adds that heritage is something integral to the quality of urban development and heritage conservation should always play a part of an urban development policy. Vietnam can make its urban areas more competitive in Southeast Asia through strengthening heritage conservation.
Ngo Trung Hai, head of the Urban and Rural Architecture and Planning Institute of the Ministry of Construction, said that an important objective of an urban development plan needs to be a balance between cultural heritage, natural resource conservation and urban development, as a population increase and the needs of modernization and industrialization need to be met.
The Hanoi development plan aims to preserve the core urban area that consists of the Ba Dinh political center, Thang Long Citadel, and the Old Quarter in terms of their material and intangible values.
Hue, which was recognized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), attaches great importance to preserving its cultural heritage while developing the city into a major urban area. Phung Thu from the Hue Relics Conservation Center said that cultural heritage conservation is vital in attaining sustainable urban development because cultural heritage is part of the relation between economic development, cultural heritage and environmental protection of a stable, sustainable urban area. This is why cultural heritage conservation is a long-term target of Hue, he said. Hue is gradually improving, restoring and developing cultural heritage sites along with economic development and urbanization.
Ho Chi Minh City has recorded great achievements in terms of combining cultural heritage conservation and economic development. The Ho Chi Minh City Planning and Architecture Department says that apart from environmental protection and effective planning, cultural heritage conservation is necessary for sustainable urban development.
PADDI says that it is vital to avoid the contradiction between modernization and cultural heritage conservation if sustainable urban development is to be reached. Heritage needs to be protected with a specific policy, while individual localities need to take practical actions while learning from foreign experiences to protect and preserve heritage.