National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue chairs meeting on draft Law on Urban and Rural Planning

The 32nd session of the National Assembly Standing Committee. Photo: National Assembly

Authorized by the Prime Minister, Minister of Construction Nguyen Thanh Nghi briefly presented the draft Law on Urban and Rural Planning. Minister Nguyen Thanh Nghi mentioned 3 major policies in the draft, including: - Completing regulations on the urban and rural planning system. - Completing regulations on the establishment, appraisal, approval, review and adjustment of urban and rural planning. - Completing regulations on the selection of planning consultancy organizations, funding sources and other relevant regulations to improve the quality and feasibility of urban and rural planning, the right to access and provide information on urban and rural planning.

Minister of Construction Nguyen Thanh Nghi at the meeting. Photo: National Assembly

The draft also adjusts the responsibility for organizing the preparation of new urban master plans (currently, the Ministry of Construction organizes the preparation of new urban master plans with a forecast population size equivalent to a type III urban area) in the direction of decentralizing the provincial People's Committee to organize the preparation of all urban master plans. According to current regulations, for general plans of type II, III, IV urban areas and new urban areas..., before approval, the provincial People's Committee must obtain written consent from the Ministry of Construction; now it is proposed to adjust the decentralization of written consent for type IV urban master plans to the specialized agency performing the function of state management of urban and rural planning under the provincial People's Committee. Another new point is that the draft law proposes to shorten the planning process: It is not required to obtain community opinions on the general planning tasks of cities, towns, districts and functional areas (except for new urban areas, towns and communes). There is no requirement to establish a separate zoning plan level for medium and small urban areas (integrating zoning plan content into the general planning of urban areas of type III, IV, V to reduce the need to establish zoning plan levels for these types of urban areas, contributing to reducing time and costs for planning work, speeding up the progress of investment and construction implementation). The draft also supplements and clearly stipulates the content of underground space planning (for urban areas under provincial authority) and underground space planning (established separately for centrally-run cities and newly-planned cities to become centrally-run cities), in order to maximize the efficiency of space use, synchronously connecting construction space above and below ground and water surface.

Chairman of the National Assembly's Economic Committee Vu Hong Thanh. Photo: National Assembly

Reviewing the draft law, Chairman of the National Assembly's Economic Committee Vu Hong Thanh said that, regarding the orientation of the content of the law, it is necessary to resolutely eliminate the term mindset, the "ask - give" mechanism, and "group interests" in the construction, adjustment, and supplementation of planning, leading to the situation of "suspended" projects and slow implementation in practice. Regarding urban types and urban administrative levels, Mr. Thanh proposed to review and study the regulations in a general direction, retaining the regulation on "The Government submits to the National Assembly Standing Committee specific regulations on urban classification suitable for each stage of socio-economic development" as the basis for promulgating the Resolution of the National Assembly Standing Committee on urban classification. The Standing Committee of the Economic Committee also proposed to report and clarify the basis for the amendments such as the draft law on "urban and rural system planning, general planning of centrally-run cities and general planning of new urban areas expected to establish centrally-run cities are planning under the national planning system; the remaining types and levels of planning are technical and specialized planning". Chairman Vu Hong Thanh also clearly stated the proposal to review specific regulations on the content of planning types and levels in the direction: for general planning, it is necessary to ensure "dynamic", open, and oriented nature, instead of "rigid", narrowing the development space of urban and rural areas.

laodong.vn

Source