On the morning of December 12, Ninh Binh province coordinated with the Ministry of Construction, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to organize a scientific conference with the theme "Discussion on Millennium Heritage Urban Areas and policy implications for Ninh Binh province". Comrades: Associate Professor, Dr. Doan Minh Huan, Member of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee; Dr. Nguyen Tuong Van, Deputy Minister of Construction; Dr. Hoang Dao Cuong, Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism attended and chaired the conference.

Also attending were comrades: Mai Van Tuat, Standing Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Council; Pham Quang Ngoc, Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee; Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Ha, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Communist Magazine; experts, scientists, managers; members of the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee; leaders of the Provincial People's Council, Provincial People's Committee, Provincial National Assembly Delegation; members of the Provincial Party Executive Committee; leaders of departments, branches, sectors and localities in the province.

Speaking at the opening of the conference, comrade Pham Quang Ngoc, Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Ninh Binh Provincial People's Committee emphasized: Throughout thousands of years of building and defending the country, Ninh Binh has always been a strategic area, marking heroic historical milestones in protecting the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country. Currently, the vestiges of the ancient capital Hoa Lu in Truong Yen commune, Hoa Lu district are one of the four core areas of the Trang An Scenic Landscape Complex with two outstanding cultural and natural factors, recognized by UNESCO as a World Cultural and Natural Heritage in 2014, the first and only dual world heritage in Southeast Asia; at the same time, it has been assessed by the Director General of UNESCO as one of the exemplary models, typical of the world in successfully combining economic development and sustainable tourism while still being able to respect nature, ensuring the harmony of interests of the people, the State and businesses.

Continuing the glorious historical tradition of our ancestors, in recent years, under the leadership and direction of the Central Government; the Party Committee, government and people of Ninh Binh have always been united, unified, proactive, creative, early identified the potentials and strengths and made timely, correct decisions and steadfastly implemented the development strategy "Green, sustainable and harmonious", helping Ninh Binh have comprehensive development: The economy has continuously grown well, the scale is increasingly expanding, the structure has shifted in the right direction; since 2022, it has become a province that balances the State budget and regulates revenue to the Central Government; the average income per capita by the end of 2022 ranked 12th out of 63 provinces and cities nationwide. In particular, Ninh Binh has developed harmoniously between regions and along with the development process, it still retains its own values ​​and identities; Ninh Binh tourism industry has made strong changes, is among the 10 provinces with the highest number of visitors and is one of the key tourist destinations in the country and internationally.

With its unique characteristics and potential in terms of nature - culture - history, the Party Committee and people of Ninh Binh province are determined to build Ninh Binh into a Millennium Heritage City and a centrally-run city by 2035. It can be said that the above goal is consistent with the potential of Ninh Binh land and the general development trend around the world.

On August 23, 2023, the Executive Committee of the Ninh Binh Provincial Party Committee issued Resolution No. 16-NQ/TU on the arrangement of district and commune-level administrative units in Ninh Binh province for the period 2023-2030, including the goal by 2025: "Implementing the merger of Ninh Binh city and Hoa Lu district, and at the same time arranging the subordinate commune-level administrative units, associated with shaping the nature of the new administrative unit after the merger as "Ancient Capital - Heritage Urban Area", based on unique values ​​of natural geography - ecology, culture - history, and possession of world cultural and natural heritage. At the same time, perfecting the criteria for recognizing the new administrative unit after the merger as a type I urban area under the province" and the goal: "Towards building Ninh Binh province to basically meet the criteria of a centrally-run city before 2030".

Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Pham Quang Ngoc stated: The strategic issue of Ninh Binh province is to build and develop Ninh Binh province to become a "Millennium Heritage City - Towards a City under the Central Government". According to Decision No. 1266 dated July 28, 2014 of the Prime Minister approving the General Urban Planning of Ninh Binh to 2030, with a vision to 2050; in the total area of ​​21,000 hectares of Ninh Binh urban area, the area of ​​Trang An World Cultural and Natural Heritage occupies about 12,000 hectares (accounting for 57%), of which the core heritage area is 6,000 hectares, the most typical of which is the ancient capital of Hoa Lu with thousands of years of history as the capital of the first centralized feudal state of Vietnam.

According to the approved plan for administrative unit arrangement in the province, Ninh Binh city and Hoa Lu district will be merged to become one urban area and is expected to be Hoa Lu city, meaning that almost the entire scope of Ninh Binh urban general planning will become Hoa Lu city in the future and the new city will have nearly 30% of its area as World Cultural and Natural Heritage.

In order for the conference to achieve high results, with many dedicated opinions from researchers, experts, scientists, managers and delegates, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Pham Quang Ngoc respectfully requests in-depth opinions, focusing on two contents:

Firstly: Discussing the millennium heritage urban area, in which opinions are exchanged on scientific and practical arguments for building urban criteria and classifying specific urban areas, suitable to the characteristics, morphology and functions of the urban area based on the cultural and ecological values ​​of Ninh Binh province.

Second: Focus on clarifying the value of Ninh Binh heritage to serve as a basis for evaluating and analyzing achievements, limitations, causes and drawing lessons. On that basis, propose tasks, solutions and specific mechanisms and policies to promote the outstanding and unique cultural and historical values ​​of the people and the land of Hoa Lu Ancient Capital.

In particular, the group of mechanisms and policies has a particularly important role and significance, being a tool to support, encourage, motivate, promote, promote internal strength, and mobilize maximum resources for development investment. In order to promote and exploit all potentials and strengths of the province, and soon achieve the goal of building Hoa Lu city in the future to become a Millennium Heritage City, Ninh Binh needs to have strong and appropriate mechanisms and policies.

Therefore, we will focus on proposing a group of mechanisms and policies related to planning work; a group on conservation and restoration, promoting the values ​​of historical relics and heritage; a group of urbanization methods and urban classification suitable for heritage urban functions, avoiding the pressure of the "compressed urban" model that conflicts with the requirements of conservation and promotion of world cultural and natural heritage values; creating a suitable model of residence and livelihood conversion for residents in heritage cities towards solving both conservation and development goals; expanding cooperation opportunities and promoting connections between heritage cities in the world. The group of mechanisms and policies to create resources focuses on the content of accessing capital sources for investment and development; the group of mechanisms and policies on investment attraction focuses on considering specific mechanisms and policies on planning, land, and investment procedures to attract investors; Group of mechanisms and policies on training and improving the quality of human resources.

The Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee believes that the issues mentioned and analyzed through the contents of the presentations and active exchanges at the conference will bring important and useful results for the management and development orientation of the millennium heritage urban area of ​​Ninh Binh province; promote the outstanding and unique cultural and historical values ​​of the people, the land of Hoa Lu Ancient Capital and the outstanding global values ​​of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage Trang An, gradually building Ninh Binh province to basically meet the criteria of a centrally-run city before 2030 and by 2035 become a centrally-run city, a typical millennium heritage urban area in the Asia-Pacific region.

Speaking at the conference, Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Hoang Dao Cuong stated the foundations for building Ninh Binh city as a heritage - tourism and landscape urban area, which are natural resources, unique natural heritage; typical cultural, historical, architectural and humanistic heritage with many potentials to be promoted on the background of cultural and historical heritage of the nation; Ninh Binh city and its vicinity are located in the cultural, historical and natural landscape area, connected with the coastal areas of Kim Son and Phat Diem. In particular, Ninh Binh city has not yet become an industrial city, has not yet taken shape, and still has many potentials for creating a new, different and special model.

According to Deputy Minister Hoang Dao Cuong, the macro and long-term motto: Hoa Lu is a city where local people enjoy a peaceful life, people from other places come to find here a place where history - nature - present coexist, a place where they can enrich their historical knowledge, travel - enjoy cultural - sports activities, festivals... that cannot be found anywhere else.

To clarify the contents related to heritage and urban areas and suggest to Ninh Binh the implications of building standards and strong enough mechanisms and policies in building Millennium Heritage Urban Areas in the coming time, the conference spent a lot of time listening to the opinions of experts, scientists and managers.

Ninh Binh Newspaper will continue to update the content of the Conference.

Song Nguyen - Anh Tuan