Experts attending the 9th Vietnam-France Finance and Economic Forum held yesterday in Hanoi all agreed with the point.
While addressing the meeting, Vietnam’s Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai cited the increase in the rate of Vietnam’s urban population, which has risen from 19 percent, or 11.8 million people, in 1986, to 30.5 percent, or 26.3 million people, in 2010.
The World Bank assessed that Vietnam is the nation with the fastest urbanization rate in Southeast Asia, according to the Vietnam News Agency.
Thus, urban areas in Vietnam are facing a number of challenges such as rapid population growth, wastefulness in land use and a loss of traditional craft villages, Hai said.
Though people living in suburban areas have received non-agricultural benefits from the urbanization process, they have encountered other growing challenges such as gambling, drug addiction and prostitution due to the gap in living conditions between people in and outside the city.
After selecting two villages for study, Phu Dien and Gia Minh in Hanoi’s Tu Liem District, Ph.D Nguyen Van Suu from Hanoi National University announced his research results that the localities have lost over three quarters of agricultural land. In addition, local irrigation networks have been damaged and locals can only grow vegetables.
Suburbanites have been left with little cultivable land and have been forced to find other economic opportunities such as building rooms for rent or running small groceries.