Vietnam seeks to apply models for healthy and happy cities in a bid toensure a sustainable urban development strategy in the long run, aconference organised by the Vietnam Association of Architecture (VAA)and the Vietnam Institute of Architecture under the Ministry ofConstruction (MoC) heard in Hanoi on October 3.

Numerousinternational and domestic experts participated in the event, which aimsto send a message to city managers and architects calling for actionplans to develop sustainable cities, VAA chairman Nguyen Tan Van said.

According to Dr Nguyen Quang, the United Nations’ HabitatProgramme Manager in Vietnam, a number of healthy and happy cities existaround the world, where the gap between rich and poor has faded away.
Residents are treated equally and they all share the same accommodation conditions, Quang added.
Jacques Moussafir from ARIA Technologies, a French company that sellssoftware run air pollution simulations and meteorological analyses,suggested the country develop policies to reform its traffic system,urban space design, and land use.

According to ConstructionMinister Trinh Dinh Dung, 770 cities and towns throughout Vietnam with acombined population of nearly 35 million have made substantialcontributions to economic development, accounting for approximately 72percent of national GDP.

At the same time, the ministerhighlighted the shortcomings in Vietnam’s urban systems, such as trafficjams, environmental pollution, and floods due to poor planning andsupervision of urban development.-VNA