Urban planning and development program of Da Nang in the new era

Urban planning and development programs are the backbone of every city-building process. If urban development is likened to a living body, then planning is the skeleton that shapes its shape, and the urban development program is the circulatory system that delivers nutrients to each part.

The city plans and allocates land funds at the 22-storey building, Da Nang Software Park No. 2 to establish a financial center. Photo: M.QUE

If planning is the big picture, then the urban development program is the action plan, concretizing the vision with goals, targets and priority project lists. This is the stage of transforming planning ideas into specific, measurable steps with a roadmap and resource engagement. Thanks to the urban development program, the city knows where to focus, what priority to give, and how to ensure synchronization between sectors.

Flexible to new opportunities and trends

The close combination between planning and urban development programs ensures that: strategic, dynamic, and key projects are not implemented separately, but become the core of a harmonious whole. Da Nang can develop synchronously both technical, social, digital, and ecological infrastructure. The city maintains a long-term vision while flexibly adapting to new opportunities in each stage.

Only when positioned within the planning framework - urban development program, will projects have a clear position, promote a spreading role, connect with technical, social, digital and ecological infrastructure, and effectively mobilize domestic and foreign resources. However, planning is not an unchanging, rigid framework. On the contrary, strategic, dynamic and key projects - with breakthroughs and leadership - become the starting ideas for creating new or adjusting plans. Thanks to that, planning both maintains a long-term vision and has the ability to flexibly adapt to new opportunities and trends in development.

In the context of Da Nang expanding its development space after merging with Quang Nam , this requirement becomes even more urgent. The city needs a list of strategic, dynamic, and key projects that both closely follow the planning and shape major development directions until 2045, to ensure that Da Nang not only solves urgent immediate needs but also rises to become an innovation center and a livable coastal city of Asian class.

In modern management thinking, urban planning and development programs are both the starting point and the destination of projects. This relationship is two-way, creating a mechanism that is both oriented and responsive, helping urban areas develop sustainably and flexibly. In the positive direction, planning plays the role of a framework vision, the urban development program is an action plan, from which specific projects and proposals are formed. Thanks to that, all dynamic, key or strategic projects are placed in a consistent whole, ensuring infrastructure synchronization, reasonable resource allocation and avoiding the situation of "development separatism".

On the other hand, the key - strategic - driving projects, with their breakthrough and strong spillover nature, can become the basis for adjusting or supplementing the planning. This is the way to ensure that the planning is not "framed" but always adapts to the new context. A strategic project such as a coastal urban area, an international financial center or a high-speed railway, when proposed, will force the city to review and update the planning to integrate and exploit the maximum advantages.

This two-way operation helps the city achieve balance. Stable and long-term: Thanks to the overall urban development program planning. Flexible and adaptive: Thanks to breakthrough projects that become the driving force for renewing the planning. Synchronous and creative: Having both a sustainable "backbone" and a dynamic "blood" ensures that the city is always moving forward.

Identify strategic, dynamic and key project portfolios

To accurately determine the role and level of influence of each project in the overall urban development, a clear classification is needed.

Strategic projects: have a long-term shaping nature, change the economic - social - urban development structure of the whole region or country; long-term impact (20-50 years); linked to the national, regional or global urban development strategy. Dynamic projects: have the ability to create a "push", promote the development of related fields, have a leading and spreading nature; have a quick impact, medium term (5-15 years). Key projects: are identified by the state or locality as special priorities, focus resources and have their own steering mechanism; are large-scale, address urgent needs; have a short- to medium-term impact (3-10 years).

Determining the list of key - driving - strategic projects of Da Nang, in addition to technical selection, is also based on legal bases, development context and clear practical needs. Da Nang needs to take planning as the foundation, take driving projects as the core, take strategic projects as a turning point to make a breakthrough by 2045.

To ensure that strategic, dynamic and key projects are implemented effectively and in sync with urban development planning and programs, Da Nang needs to build a system of modern, transparent and adaptive management tools.

First, the KPI index set and the urban Dashboard. KPI (Key Performance Indicators): Establish specific measurement indicators for each project, from progress, cost, socio-economic efficiency, to environmental impact and the level of engagement with planning goals. Urban Dashboard: Integrate online data, visualize on digital platforms, helping authorities, investors and people monitor project implementation. It ensures transparency, creates trust for society and the international community.

Second, CDE and BIM in project management. CDE (Common Data Environment): A common data platform for the entire project life cycle, from design, construction to operation. BIM (Building Information Modeling): A comprehensive digital tool, ensuring accuracy, reducing costs, and limiting technical conflicts. For large-scale strategic, key, and dynamic projects, CDE and BIM are prerequisites to ensure information synchronization - inter-sectoral connection - transparent management.

Third, Policy Sandbox. A mechanism for testing policies within a limited scope, time, and space before fully expanding. Applied in Da Nang: Testing new investment mechanisms for digital infrastructure, finance, logistics, and innovation. It helps the city “stay one step ahead” in embracing technology, business models, and global development trends.

Fourth, Digital governance and smart government. Digital government: Applying AI, Big Data, and cloud computing to urban management and operations. Digital governance: Not only optimizing internal processes, but also enhancing the participation of people and businesses in monitoring and decision-making. It creates the foundation for Da Nang to develop sustainably, fairly, transparently, and towards the goal of becoming a global city.

Historic opportunity to break out

In the context of increasingly fierce global competition, a city that wants to reach its height cannot stop at solving immediate needs, but needs to define a long-term vision, clearly positioning its position in the region and the world. Da Nang, with its geo-economic location advantage, expanded land fund after merging with Quang Nam, along with the potential of digital infrastructure and people, is facing a historic opportunity to make a breakthrough.

Da Nang's overall goal by 2045 is to become "A center of innovation, a livable coastal city of Asian class". This is not only the city's own goal, but also a national mission, because a globally developed Da Nang will become a driving force for the entire Central region and Vietnam. To realize that goal, Da Nang needs to clearly define the project portfolio. The list of strategic, dynamic, and key projects of Da Nang by 2045 is divided into 8 large groups, including (1) Transport - logistics - regional connectivity group; (2) Digital infrastructure - technology group; (3) Finance - trade - dynamic urban group; (4) Innovation - experimental sandbox group; (5) Education - elite human resource development group; (6) Energy - environment - green urban group; (7) Culture - tourism - quality of life group; (8) National defense - security construction group.

The driving, key and strategic projects, if integrated into a comprehensive framework, will become the resonant core, both solving urgent needs, creating medium-term momentum, and shaping long-term strategy. With the set goals, Da Nang needs to flexibly apply the two-way relationship of planning - project, clearly classifying driving - key - strategic projects, and at the same time applying modern management tools (KPI, Dashboard, BIM, CDE, Sandbox) to ensure transparency, efficiency and sustainability.

Da Nang, with its geographical location advantage, open space, and the aspiration to become an “Innovation Center, a livable coastal city of Asian class”, needs to consider the list of strategic - driving - key projects until 2045 not only as an investment plan, but also as a “development manifesto”. When planning becomes the backbone, the program becomes the blood, the project becomes the muscle, and the strategic project becomes the brain, Da Nang will create a new look: Modern, green, smart, with strong identity, worthy of the region and reaching out to the world.

Source: https://baodanang.vn/quy-hoach-va-chuong-trinh-phat-trien-do-thi-cua-da-nang-trong-ky-nguyen-moi-3302986.html