On 2 Feb, Thu Dau Mot City (TDM City) announced the Prime Minister’s Decision on recognizing TDM City as a first-class urban center under the province. Binh Duong Newspaper interviewed Vo Hoang Ngan, Director of Department of Construction, about this.
- Today Thu Dau Mot city announces the Prime Minister’s Decision o on recognizing TDM City as a first-class urban center directly under the province. How do you evaluate the urban development of TDM City in recent years?
- TDM City was approved by the Prime Minister to be a first-class urban center, with an area of 11,890.6 ha, under Binh Duong Province on December 6, 2017. TDM City is the center of Binh Duong Province and is also a central sub-urban center in the Ho Chi Minh City planning. Since Thu Dau Mot was recognized as second-class urban center (2014), the city has gradually improved limitations to meet the criteria of first-class urban.
A corner of Binh Duong New City (Thu Dau Mot City).
The recognition of TDM City first-class urban center is in line with orientations for the master plan for Vietnamese urban development and the program for urban development of Vietnam approved by the Prime Minister, orientations for the urban development program of Binh Duong and TDM City. This is also a chance for TDM City to improve the urban quality in all aspects; fulfill its role as an administrative, service, trade, tourism and industrial center of the province in the coming time, contributing to the province's common goal of heightening the material and spiritual living standard of the people, moving towards civilization, rich and beautiful urban center.
- Could you tell about the role and contribution of the Department of Construction in the urban development of Ho Chi Minh City in recent years?
- In recent years, the leadership and guidance of provincial Party Committee, provincial People's Committee and especially efforts of the locality, the city concentrated all resources, determination to develop TDM City as a first-class urban center in 2017 and has come to fruition. Department of Construction, as a specialized agency, guided and urged localities to upgrade the urban class in line with the roadmap of National Urban Development Program, Urban Development Program of Binh Duong Province, and Urban Development Program of TDM City.
In order to achieve the above objectives, Department of Construction and local authorities advised provincial Party Committee on the implementation of Resolution No. 32-NQ / TU on building and developing TDM City for the period 2011-2015 and setting up Resolution No. 17-NQ / TU of provincial Party Committee on the further construction and development of TDM City for the period 2016-2020 and the following years, in view civilization and modernization, paying attention to investment and development of technical and social infrastructure in accordance with the planning; step by step develop the "green - smart city", creating the appearance of green - clean - beautiful urban landscape, improving the quality of people’s lives.
Besides, in order for TDM City to be recognized as a class-1 urban center, Department of Construction urged and collaborated with the localities in setting up the urban upgrading roadmap, reviewing and initial appraising the data in the urban upgrading scheme to ensure the legality for provincial People's Committee and provincial People's Council’s approval before submitting to Ministry of Construction.
- In the coming time, what should be done by TDM City to improve some standards have not reached the minimum points and improve the quality of achieved standards, sir?
- On the basis of the analysis and evaluation of 59 standards specified in the Appendix to NA's Resolution No. 1210/2016/UBTVQH13 on the classification of urban centers, the current situation of socio-economic development of TDM City is evaluated according to three groups of standard: the standard group has reached and exceeded the maximum standard comprises of 36 standards; standard group has not reached maximum point includes 19 standards; standard group has not reached the score (0 points) includes 4 standards.
Regarding the criteria meeting standards but still at low level, TDM City should continue to strengthen to reach the maximum score. The city should focus on a synchronous urban infrastructure, early implementation of projects of public investment in the area; In particular, the implementation of approved master plans, investing in main transportation routes and main drainage axes to minimize flooding. The city should pay attention to the telecommunications bundle in combination with urban upgrading, improving the quality of architectural works in the area; creating favorable conditions for organizations and individuals to connect to wastewater treatment system to raise the quality of living environment. The city should also prioritize investments in newly established wards; infrastructure development in the west and north-west of the city combined with investment attraction in services and trade in Binh Duong industrial - service - urban complex...
In the coming years, Binh Duong province in general and Thu Dau Mot City in particular will continue to accelerate the implementation of construction investment projects, especially public investment projects; attract other capital sources for the development of urban technical infrastructure and social infrastructure, contributing to raising the quality of people's lives and creating new faces of urban landscape in the direction of civilization, modernization, sustainability, first-class urban center and the central of the province.
Reported by Phuong Le – Translated by Ngoc Huynh
