Innovation in planning thinking: The foundation for Bac Ninh to make a breakthrough

Bac Ninh province was established (after merging Bac Ninh province (old) and Bac Giang province), provincial planning needs to overcome current limitations and challenges.

Innovation in provincial planning from approach, tools to science and new models

Through research and direct discussions with many Vietnamese and international planning experts, it can be seen that planning in Vietnam only uses forecasting tools and SWOT, but lacks the application of participatory approaches, logical frameworks, especially specialized planning tools such as "problem trees", "goal trees"...

Building a scientific and practical basis for planning is a very important step, demonstrating innovation in urban territorial organization, developing national clusters (production, services), effectively using resources, protecting the environment on the basis of philosophy, politics , economics and economic geography theory, growth models, economic competition, etc. Bac Ninh province's planning must successfully put the Politburo's major economic policies and guidelines into practice, overcome current limitations, create breakthroughs for private enterprises as well as R&D to become a rich and strong province in the new era.

A corner of Bac Giang ward seen from above. Photo by Viet Hung.

The type/level of planning in Vietnam that has been assessed lacks a presentation of the New Planning Model based on analysis and assessment of national policies and strategies, the socio-economic situation of the country and the province; focusing on innovation of space, growth models, economic competition and approved national plans that currently need to be adjusted such as land, urban areas, transportation, and energy. The new planning model for Bac Ninh province is a strong shift from a growth and development model focusing on increasing the scale in quantity to a model based on both, focusing mainly on the quality of growth and development on the basis of exploiting and promoting potentials, advantages, and overcoming limitations suitable for the new era. This new planning model is the main idea throughout the industrialization period, ensuring the achievement of planning development goals based on scientific foundations and the practical situation of the province.

Innovation in planning goals, content and space

Applying the participatory approach, logical framework, problem tree, goal tree, etc., the author presents the main goals and contents of the plan to overcome current limitations and the Planning Law:

1/ Planning development goals: a/ Bac Ninh province is rich and strong, ranking at the top of the country, with the criteria of achieving and exceeding high income by 2050; b/ Innovating a synchronous, professional and modern space reflecting the new provincial administrative center (Bac Giang area), industrial center (old Bac Ninh area) rich in Kinh Bac identity and effective, modern and sustainable infrastructure (roads, railways, waterways, airways); c/ Leading the country in developing electronics, semiconductor, chip, pharmaceutical industries... on the basis of national clusters, making a breakthrough in developing high-quality human resources, private enterprises, R&D and standards, synchronization, professionalism of industrial parks, service areas, urban areas...; d/ Using resources, especially land and water resources effectively, sustainably and adapting to climate change.

2/ Contents of the provincial planning to adapt to climate change in the new era, including: a/ General development direction of Bac Ninh province; b/ Planning of the urban and rural system of Bac Ninh province with its own identity; c/ Infrastructure planning, focusing on Bac Ninh province's transportation, good regional, inter-regional and international connectivity; d/ Sectoral planning, linking key national brand products in Bac Ninh province on the basis of cluster development, private enterprises and strong implementation of R&D; e/ Effective and sustainable land use planning of Bac Ninh province; g/ Effective and sustainable environmental planning; h/ Identifying key projects.

A corner of Kinh Bac ward. Photo: Nguyen Huong.

Research on the territorial organization in the approved planning of the two old provinces of Bac Ninh and Bac Giang found a number of questions that need to be further explored for the new planning: Characteristics of the new administrative center and the provincial industrial center; use of headquarters after the merger; demonstration of Kinh Bac cultural identity; modern, efficient, optimal infrastructure...; innovation of production territory, electronic business, medicine and pharmacy... on the basis of value chains, production networks and cluster life cycle enhancement; effective and sustainable land use; protection of a good and sustainable ecological environment; key projects to achieve development goals, enhance economic competitiveness...

Territorial organization innovation is the most difficult planning content, and currently approved projects in Vietnam have not yet provided quantitative indicators such as Geographic diffusion coefficient, Regional specialization indicators, Labor specialization indicators, etc., without which the results of territorial organization innovation cannot be known. The planning of the two above-mentioned centers needs to be analyzed and calculated based on the goals, desires to be achieved, and indicators of population density, green space ratio, land ratio for urban traffic, etc., and cannot lack specific maps and clear planning reports.

Bac Ninh province's planning is closely linked to the development of the transportation and dike systems... focusing on expressways, high-quality electric train railways of about 50 km in length, air routes connecting the capital and the world, and a synchronous, efficient, modern, safe, and secure dike system.

Innovating urban space to highlight the administrative area, the square creates a difference in the administrative center of Bac Giang and the thematic area, with the training organization headquarters, R&D center, headquarters of large corporations in the industrial center of Bac Ninh. Automobile cluster in Bangkok, Thailand with 11 industrial parks, each area is about 1,000 hectares, with Amata industrial city and a typical, modern administrative area for us to learn in planning. Then the countryside still retains the village-style form in Taiwan (China), Japan for Bac Ninh to learn for planning.

Planning for urban space development, especially the two above-mentioned areas and urban areas, industrial parks, and service areas of Bac Ninh province to improve economic competitiveness and sustainability on the basis of spatial restructuring, innovation of growth models, and improvement of land use efficiency instead of creating many obscure areas and too many substandard urban and industrial areas, creating a real estate trading market based on subdivision and sale of vacant land, not based on real market demand, real estate prices are pushed up too high by large private corporations.

Balancing the national ecosystem in which increasing the canopy cover to 0.3 of forest trees, not the canopy cover of 0.1 of vegetation, including shrubs and grass, plays a particularly important and irreplaceable role. Floods and landslides have caused serious consequences and recently many places in Bac Giang city and Bac Ninh city have been flooded due to the common ecosystem, the dykes being damaged and the construction not being up to standard. This is a shortcoming that Vietnam, including Bac Ninh province, needs to adjust and supplement. At the very least, by 2050, the canopy cover of forests must reach 60% and the dyke system must be maintained and developed to reduce damage and develop sustainably.

Ha Long Bay - the heritage that we are proud of as the 7th natural wonder of the world was formed over millions of years due to the lack of prohibitions in the Planning Law, so it was destroyed. Bac Ninh province needs to plan so that Yen Tu area, conservation areas and Kinh Bac historical and cultural heritages can be preserved and promoted. The first Declaration of Independence of our Vietnam by Ly Thuong Kiet resounded from this land, but along the Nhu Nguyet River, at the temple of two gods of the Truong family, the author is not satisfied. The planner, architect and historian together researched and proposed to build a historical relic site here, depicting Thai Uy Ly Thuong Kiet riding a war elephant, holding a sword in his hand and the four immortal Declaration of Independence sentences of our nation, our Vietnam, engraved in Chinese characters and Vietnamese national language. The author believes that the historical relic site will last forever with the nation, no one complains that the construction of this special historical relic site costs the budget or the people's money, the planning is honored.

The old Bac Ninh province realized the limited land fund, the former Bac Giang province was not redundant but needed to look at the future of the new Bac Ninh province with over 3 million people when compared to Thanh Hoa province, Nghe An province... Therefore, land use planning is not adding from the bottom up but must investigate and accurately inventory land to the users to clearly see how much state land fund is used, how much is used by the community and especially how much is used by enterprises and households. The province hires good experts in land classification, land use and land evaluation, especially the efficiency of land use models (land use efficiency model) of urban areas, industrial parks, agricultural areas and service areas to clarify efficiency, avoid waste of land use. Determine the right purpose and scale of land use on the basis of science and practice suitable for the new era, determined to accelerate and break through. Determining land prices based on foreign experience without having to come up with many methods, lacking testing to let localities "swim on their own", but needing to invite international experts, Vietnamese experts to build together, giving appropriate guidance to overcome many current shortcomings. After more than a year of approval by the National Assembly, we had to propose to adjust this planning because of the limitations of the Planning Law and the land planning norms being too low.

If the right projects are not proposed and selected, especially projects to build 2 centers, industrial parks, service areas, urban areas, develop infrastructure and develop national clusters, etc., the planning will only stop on maps and reports. Building a set of indicators based on science and practice is the decisive step to choose the right key projects and key investment points. These projects clarify the content, avoid the current excessive complexity or being too simple while ignoring important regulations and are difficult specific tasks.

The above is the author's opinion to overcome current planning limitations, exploit and promote potentials and advantages to make Bac Ninh a rich and powerful province, ranking among the top provinces and cities in the country, successfully implementing the new policies of the Party and State.

Source: https://baobacninhtv.vn/doi-moi-tu-duy-quy-hoach-nen-tang-cho-bac-ninh-but-pha-postid423688.bbg