Vietnamese Regional Planning: Problems in Implementation and International Experiences

Vietnam is one of Southeast Asian countries which is realizing its regional plans with success and also failure. This paper aims to present Vietnamese regional planning and the difficulties it faces when implemented. The problem with the organization of territorial management is also explored. This paper argues that this is due to the lack of regional leadership, which could implement the application of planning effectively. The paper also presents other mistakes formed through planned urbanization, infrastructure, and regional economy. In addition, it highlights the responsibilities that divisions of Vietnamese regional governments have in planning. In order to overcome complications in regional planning, the article proposes that the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, and other developing countries, learn from international experiences and resolutions.


Introduction
The Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a developing country that is experiencing industrialization and urbanization.Since the end of French Colonial rule in 1945, and reunification in 1975, the Vietnamese have maintained an old system of governance and a territorial division of state (Constitution of Vietnam, 2013).In recent years, under the pressures of balanced development among Vietnamese areas, the government has established key economic areas with their own plans.The goal is to build strong urbanized economic regions, which trigger the impetus for a snappy development of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.After nearly ten years, these regional plans seem to have achieved few results due to poor governance and mistakes created in regional planning.This paper will analyze the problems and faults made in Vietnamese regional planning.

Territorial Division and the Structure of Government
From 1946 to 2013, the territorial division of the Vietnam, as its institution, has seen no alteration.The state divides into provinces and central municipalities.Provinces divide into districts, county towns and provincial cities.As well, central municipalities divide into urban districts and districts; districts divide into communes and towns, and urban districts into wards… (As shown Figure 1).Figure 2. T ral governmen of three local g wn Figure 3).The grand application of planning for key economic regions has achieved significant progress, especially in infrastructure.In the last ten years, the Ministry of Transportation has completed many highways and national roads to connect cities and provinces, which are very important in order to develop urban areas and industrial zones.Furthermore, the Electric Power Company of Vietnam (EVN) developed a rather decent power supply system and has met the demand of the socio-economic structure (As shown Figure 6).This is a fundamental basis for urban and industrial development.Beside that, Vietnamese telecommunication systems have seen phenomenal growth from 2000 to 2010.Ten years ago, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam ranked low among other Asian countries.Today, it is one of the most developed in regards to the internet and telecommunications on the continent.Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, and Hanoi are developing astonishingly and have become the country's main urban centers.These key centers have spread their dynamic activities to nearby localities.As a result, neighboring localities are also enjoying development.There are models such as Binh Duong and Ba Ria Vung Tau in Ho Chi Minh City region, Quang Nam of Da Nang region, and Hung Yen of Hanoi region.Numerous industrial parks have been built around these key centers, which have encouraged the economic growth of nearby provinces.Past policies triggered higher growth when the Socialist Republic of Vietnam established a market economy.The territorial division of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, the organization of the government structure and the distribution of power achieved some active results, especially during the period of economic reform with the first phase of market economy.

Problems and Reasons
Despite positive results, this management system also confronts difficulties and faults that have been made, which hinders national and regional growth in the present Vietnamese market economy.

The Gap in Development
The territorial division and local organization of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam has evidently caused unequal development among provinces and cities.Local governments concentrate on their own targets through decisions by their People's Councils.Therefore, they cannot enlist their advantages to boost quick regional economic growth.This creates a big gap in development among provinces and cities (As shown Figure 7).Wealthier localities have more capital to improve infrastructure in comparison to their poorer counterparts.They are able to attract more investment and their income per capita is much stronger.The balance of central government is evident, despite difficulties in reducing the gap in development.This situation is not only a reality among Vietnamese provinces and cities, but also in the key economic regions.Essentially, with advantages in infrastructure and human resources, central cities of a region usually develop faster than their nearby provinces, which depend on the agricultural sector.Although provinces are trying to develop their own industrial and service sectors, the gap in Vietnamese socio-economic development is still rather extraordinary due to weaker infrastructural environments.As well, the low budgets of localities are an issue.This is a barrier which hinders the development of a whole region.Therefore, wise government policies are needed to resolve this crucial

The Lack of an Effective Regional Management Body
When the government planned its key economic regions, they intended to build strong economic centers with big cities as the nucleus.The central government assigns the Ministry of Planning and Investment and the Ministry of Construction to design regional planning.Steering committees were assigned to realize these plans.They consist of provincial (cities) leaders and they vote for an alternative Chairperson, who serves a one year term, to manage the committee.This management mechanism of regions is inoperative due to the fact that provincial leaders are equally ranked.It is difficult for a Chairman of a province to command other Chairmen.Furthermore, steering committees have no budget to decide inter-regional constructions in infrastructure, except for electric and road systems built through national plans.In fact, every province focuses on own target and neglects the concerns and plans of others.On occasion, there is unfair competition among regions in economic development and steering committees cannot arbitrate, especially in attracting investment and guaranteeing environmental protection.In addition, Vietnamese law is lacking in providing those who have responsibility, such as local governments, in managing regional issues.There is a common belief that only the central government has to perform this duty.Perhaps, this is the biggest obstacle that hinders the realization of regional development.

Regional Economic Planning
In regional planning, based on the advantages of provinces and cities, planners usually assign which economic sectors can adapt to localities.This can lead to one province being able to develop industry and services over the other.However, regional planning determines this for agricultural areas as well.In the view of regional planning, this arrangement seems reasonable because the advantages of exploitation will encourage effective economic development.However, there is no equalization of income in regions.For instance, the agricultural provinces always stand at a lower development level in comparison to their industrial counterparts.This is the reason that localities will not accept economic regional planning.They attempt to develop three economic sectors being industry, services, and agriculture, despite regional planning.In the key economic regions, each member (province or city) tries to develop urban areas, industrial zones, and other infrastructure.They neglect the plans of neighboring provinces.We see spontaneous construction which wastes capital, resources, and creates unfair competition among provinces in areas that encourage attractive investment.The central government recognizes this problem.Unfortunately, there is no intervention due to regulations and impositions.The balance of government is not strong enough to combat this issue.

Planning for Urban and Industrial Infrastructure
Problems in urban planning appear undoubtedly in economic zones.Evidently, planners are at fault for making inadequate calculations, or estimates, in regards to who will inhabit residential areas or new urban quarters.According to Vietnamese law, land is state property and can serve as a special good.The government does grant land rights for citizens when it needs to utilize land for a specific purpose.The government will compensate a landowner by granting them limited ownership.In return, landowners have to give their land back to the government.In reality, this is very complicating and the implementation of regional planning suffers as a consequence.Reasons for this vary, such as compensation, resettlement policies, public support, and the purpose of projects.Evidently, almost all projects have confronted this difficulty.The utilization problem of land in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam causes inefficiencies for regional planning.

The Competence of Management in Local Authorities
Together with irrational regional authority and its structural organization, another fault lies with local governance and its fragile ability in implementing planning.This fallacy of planning in a market economy seems rather common.Local governments use to motivate planners to draw from their own ideas, even if such ideas had no relation to any regulation or scientific analysis.This direction is all too familiar with economic centralization that occurred in the past, where government performs all the work in implementing planning.As a result, these plans lack a real market economy.As a consequence, this creates an excess of urban areas, industrial zones, and infrastructural projects that also prove inefficient.Arguably, the fault lies with local leaders and advisors.

International Experiences
Difficulty arises when trying to apply a methodology of planning from one country to another.Every country has its own political establishment, form economic development, and level of education among its masses.However, some international experiences can be referred to and serve as lessons for local or central governments that seek to correct its faults in implementing regional planning.

Japanese Regional Management
Japan is divided into cities and provinces.Under a province, there are provincial cities, districts, towns and villages.Recently, Japan has almost urbanized all its countryside and there are only a few villages left.Japan organizes the government level of cities, provinces, towns, districts, and villages.In Japan, regions have no official administrative units, but its government is divided into eight regions being Hokkaido, Tohoku, Kanto, Chubu, Kansai, Chugoku, Shikoku, and Kyushu.Regional governments are absent but the central government stipulates the collaboration of local governments that aim to develop the economy, keep security, and implement regional planning.In Japanese regions, there has been tremendous collaboration between local authorities in performing planning with the central government.In Kansai region, the water supply companies of cities and provinces, which are mostly state owned, have strong associations.Many Japanese cities face the issue of fresh water depletion.In order to solve this issue, the Japanese government and the water companies have exploited resources from its regions and distributed enough water for all its cities and inhabitants.
In Japan, land utilized for agriculture and construction is very scarce.The government compensates private land usage for the leveling of mountains and the filling of bays.This provides enough land for construction.Planning for new urban areas, industrial parks, airports, highways, railways, and other infrastructural projects is also provided.Planners also make adequate calculations for inhabitants that will settle in new areas.For instance, an inhabitants' means, how they commute to work, and other demands they have in life are carefully calculated.Japanese authorities carefully pass the details of planning, organize the construction of basic infrastructure for electricity, water supplies, communication systems and then the private sector plays a role by investing in project components with government supervision.This methodology is successful for regional planning in Kansai region.For instance, Kobe City has developed new industrialized urban areas, new centers and an airport in Osaka Bay (As shown Figure 11).
What is evident about Japanese Regional Management is that the organization of regional government is nonexistent.However, the central government provides aid for planning and finances regional works.In addition, local governments seek collaboration with each other, especially with inter-cities, or provinces, in regards to issues related to waste treatment, water supplies, and transportation.Japan has a narrow landscape so planning is done sensibly, and the direction of regional governments maintains an adequate environment that is suitable for human development.Another Japanese experience we can learn from is the mobilization of resources.Local governments effectively enlist aid provided by the central government in order to build basic infrastructure.Simultaneously, exploitation occurs, with private sector help, through implementation and this maintains regional planning.The spirit of Japanese people is also represented in the implementation of regional planning.Evidently, the issue of Localism is absent.The Japanese government and its citizens collaborate together in regional planning.Arguably, this reveals how Japanese regions develop quickly despite having restricted  cture.waste treatment, potable water, waste water, drainage, roadway construction, and circulation.In 2006, the government supplemented spatial development planning, one of the most important tasks of regional management (Hudalah, 2013).

Proposals
With experiences of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and lessons from other countries, the author would like to propose some resolutions as a means to solve the problems in the implementation of Vietnamese regional planning.

Regional Management System
One of the most serious issues with the key economic regions is that they hinder the development and regional advantages for exploitation due to the lack of an effective management body.As mentioned before, with the current government structure and Localism, it is rather difficult to perform successful regional planning.Without changes in the executive body, to have an effective regional administration, the central government would have to decide on a committee for regional governance.The leaders of this committee would be designated by the central government with the agreement of local authorities.However, it cannot nominate the Chairman of Provinces (cities) as the alternative Committee Chairman.This selection of regional leadership has been a failure in the past.The committee must be strong enough to implement inter-regional duties.In addition, this committee will receive funds from the government budget for their obligations.The committee tasks should relate to common regional works such as spatial development planning and infrastructure.These works are determined as the ones that stipulate the development of all regions.The power of the committee can equalize investments in regional infrastructure.Therefore, less developed areas can move forward and achieve greater development.
Evidently, the problem for this organization of management is the quality of committee members and the support of local governments.

The Role of Government in Planning
In implementing regional planning, central and local governments have a very important role.Major and spatial planning are the core of regional development and they are built by competent organizations.As well, it is better that these strategies receive the support of local governments and their inhabitants.In first phase of implementation, the government should participate directly in planning, land clearance compensation, and in building infrastructure.Then, private investors should be invited to take part in regional planning under the control of the government in such a way that the plan has to be observed.The central government uses regional committees and ministerial organizations as tools to perform the spatial planning and to integrate urban and rural areas within regions.This regional governance takes on inter-area construction in infrastructural projects of energy, water-supplies, waste treatment, telecommunications, and transportation systems.Moreover, regional governance has a duty to integrate local governments in development.Although the Socialist Republic of Vietnam applies a policy of decentralization, provincial (city) governments need to extrude Localism in order for all localities to develop strongly.Therefore, regional collaboration in economic and infrastructural construction has to be regulated by the central government (Savitch et Vogel, 2010).

Market Economy and Regional Planning
In the implementation of Vietnamese regional planning, there are some leadership that still cling to the ideas of economic centralization.Therefore, they have not calculated carefully in regards to who will buy property in regional projects and other facilities that attract inhabitants to locate.Many urban residential areas have been deserted while many inhabitants concentrate on other spontaneous quarters because the demand and whether inhabitants can afford to locate on planned areas is miscalculated.For instance, some residential projects were far from customers' working places, there was lack of transportation, a lack in infrastructure and too expensive to purchase.Many industrial zones cannot attract secondary investors because of the unfavorable situation.Clearly, these projects have caused waste in resources and disorder in planning.To resolve this problem, the government needs to issue regulations that limit inefficient projects by careful project appraisal and solve delayed projects.Therefore, the government needs to release residency restriction to help the development of urban areas and encourage investors to consider many credible market sectors that can exploit in collaboration with the government.In other words, market residential areas for low and medium incomes.In addition, small and medium enterprises should be the target market for industrial parks.

Difficulties in Resolution, Management and Professional Problems
Many mistakes in Vietnamese regional planning can be circumvented if the government hires earnest planners and pursues the consultation of inhabitants and specialists.As well, local authorities may select powerful investors to implement planning.Local governments need competent consultants to help them in making decisions related to the planning of regional development.It needs vibrant, reasonable compensation policies to solve the immense obstacles such as land clearance.Moreover, strict regulation should be issued to prevent the spontaneous construction and improper land utilization to assure regional planning functions adequately.

Conclusion
In an environment of globalization, the development of regions is tangible.The Socialist Republic of Vietnam has the advantages of geophysics and strong economic development.Furthermore, the key economic regions are situated near important maritime and air traffic routes.Therefore, if the government has suitable policies, these regions of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam may well become the urban or economic centers of Asia.This development needs the wise management of authorities, which remove the obstacles of regional development.
The most important demand is a strong regional management body which can solve issues effectively.We cannot negate the development of Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, or Hanoi, but in the view of Regionalism, growth is rather disappointing.If authority handles and solves early regional problems, perhaps Vietnamese regions might develop quicker and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam could possibly overtake other Asian countries.The experience of the People's Republic of China, with good management, in few decades, allowed many poor regions to become highly developed areas of Asia such as Shenzhen, Hsiamen, and Zhuhai.These proposals are the ones for government to consider.A strong change of perspective in leadership needed, so regions can grow quicker and become a source of motivation for the whole country.There are many viewpoints on regional development, from each district as an agro-industrial fortress in economic planning to the Localism of provinces in recent days.Barriers that hinder the performance of regional planning still exist in some regions.The experiences of regional planning from other countries cannot be applied entirely in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.However, many of them are valuable lessons to learn from, such as having competent regional governance, free competition in a market economy, wise decision making in spatial regional planning, flexibility in long-term planning application, the transition of the economy with regional planning, and the exclusion of Localism.Finally, management in regional planning and its implementation impacts strongly in regards to the growth of a country.A wise change can help the Socialist Republic of Vietnam move forward and become a model itself to be studied.

Figure 6 .
Figure 6.Electric consumption in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and neighboring countries Source: World Bank provinces and cities.

Figure 7 .
Figure 7.The Gap of GDP in Ho Chi Minh City Region Source: General Statistics of Vietnam Figure 11 ry.com

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