Building a modern, culturally rich Da Nang city

The separation of administrative urban space is convenient for new development but cannot separate the ecological space, heritage space as well as the architectural "flow" of Hoi An urban area. Photo: QUOC TUAN

The most core goal by 2030 stated in the Draft Political Report submitted to the 23rd Congress of the Da Nang City Party Committee is "to build a modern city, rich in identity, with humane Da Nang people, high quality of life, and join the whole country in entering the era of national growth".

For Da Nang before the merger, the goal of striving to become a “modern, rich in identity” city was not easy, because modernity must also be rich in cultural identity - and modernization must not even damage cultural identity; it is even more difficult for Da Nang after the merger.

"Heart-to-heart" technology is urgently needed.

The reason is that just how to preserve and promote the cultural identity of a city that stretches from the south of Hai Van mountain to Doc Soi, spreading from Hoang Sa special zone on the East Sea to the Vietnam - Laos border, much richer in cultural heritage because now the ethnic minority communities in the area are not only the Co Tu community as before the merger, is not simple; especially not simple when having to carry out modernization - mainly through urbanization - in many rural and mountainous communes that account for a high proportion of the commune-level administrative units of Da Nang today (70 communes, 23 wards and Hoang Sa special zone).

To solve this difficult problem, Da Nang needs to make efforts to have a number of communes that meet the standards to be upgraded to wards as soon as possible, focusing first on communes with administrative - political centers that used to be towns/district capitals and communes that used to have a fairly high level of urbanization but are located on the city's main traffic routes such as national highways or provincial roads...

However, to modernize faster, on a larger scale, and more evenly, including communes that have not yet met the standards to be upgraded to wards, Da Nang needs to soon invest in information technology infrastructure to popularize digital capacity, creating equal access to digital services for all communes/wards in the city.

The policy of assigning wards in the plains to form twinned relationships with communes in the mountainous areas needs to be oriented to focus on supporting the "digital literacy" movement as well as on equipping twinned communes with computers/smartphones... - of course, on the basis of having internet coverage throughout the city.

One of the outstanding characteristics of a humane person is always caring for others, being compassionate and sensitive to unfortunate lives, those who are likely to be left behind. Therefore, to build a "humane Da Nang person", Da Nang needs to continue to launch volunteer activities - first of all in remote areas and at unexpected times such as natural disasters and fires - along with promoting the power of literature and art to move people's hearts.

To build a modern city, Da Nang really needs information technology; and to build humane people, Da Nang really needs "heart-to-heart" technology - understood in the sense of how people's hearts can reach other people's hearts, and to do so is also happiness, is "having a high quality of life"...

Quality of life is often expressed through the Happiness Index - a global measure to assess people's satisfaction with life. This index is not only based on economic income but also considers many different factors to comprehensively reflect the quality of life, such as the ability of people to receive help from the community and government when facing difficulties, or the willingness to help others of Da Nang communities...

“A little is better than the gift”, “the way of giving is better than the amount of giving”… so from this perspective, there may not be a significant gap between residents with high economic income and residents with low economic income in participating in volunteer activities “helping each other”.

However, in other aspects arising from the income gap of “some have more than enough, some have less”, Da Nang needs a solution to both increase economic growth across the city and narrow the gap between rich and poor between communities, in which traffic connectivity should be considered a key solution, because good traffic connectivity not only leads to two-way trade “young jackfruit sent down, flying fish sent up” but also leads to more convenient cultural exchange and therefore more frequent and effective, contributing to the process of building a “modern, rich in identity” Da Nang city, as well as to the process of “joining the whole country in entering the era of national development”.

Confidently overcome integration and development

In the history of Quang Nam's opening up, Da Nang has always accompanied the whole country, for example, once representing the whole country and together with the whole country fought tenaciously against the French-Spanish coalition in the battle at the foot of Dien Hai citadel in the year of Mau Ngo 1858, once "bravely and steadfastly leading the way to destroy the Americans" in 1965... and now is ready to join the whole country in entering a new era of development.

Da Nang coastal urban space - where many large-scale tourism real estate projects are located. Photo: XUAN SON

From July 2025 to present, Da Nang has been working with the whole country to practically operate the 2-level local government model, working with the whole country to organize party congresses at all levels towards the 14th National Party Congress, and more importantly, working with the whole country to find optimal solutions to effectively develop the locality after the merger.

It is worth mentioning that at this historical turning point, Da Nang people were inspired by many cultural identities that are very Quang Nam, such as the argumentative nature - the premise of innovation and creativity, or the pioneering spirit, accepting to take the lead in building a number of development models that have no precedent in the country such as free trade zones, international financial centers... - although with the Lai Vien Kieu mindset, the international trading port of Hoi An was also considered an economic special zone of Dang Trong since the beginning of the 17th century, which is a very worthy precedent to refer to.

I would like to add that many people understand Hoi An as Hoi of An things; however, there is also another understanding that Hoi An is Hoi but still An, that opening the door to integration, building a bridge to "welcome guests from afar" - Chua Cau/Lai Vien bridge - has many opportunities but also many challenges, but Hoi An is still confident enough to overcome integration and development while still maintaining peace and becoming a brand that goes with the years.

International financial center, free trade zone... in the new era of development also requires Da Nang people today to have the ability to gather - yet - remain - safe like their ancestors hundreds of years ago!

So, at the threshold of the new, Da Nang people always remind each other that we need to find a way to make Hoi An peaceful, to be modern but still rich in cultural identity, but still not encroach on the natural environment, and absolutely not accept development at all costs. Only then, from 2025, Da Nang people can still confidently think about the 2045 vision stated in the Draft Political Report submitted to the 23rd Congress: "Building Da Nang city into an ecological and smart urban area, a free trade center, an international financial center, an industrial center, logistics, innovative startups and a tourist city, worth living, of Asian regional class"...

To do so, the decisive factor is the human factor, the cadre work, the creation of high-quality human resources - first of all, Party members who are always exemplary pioneers, who go first for the "country to follow", and leaders and managers, especially those who are "highly qualified, truly the center of innovation, ensuring Party spirit, mass spirit, solidarity and spreading trust among the people" (excerpt from the Draft Political Report submitted to the 23rd Congress).

Source: https://baodanang.vn/xay-dung-thanh-pho-da-nang-hien-dai-giau-ban-sac-3300315.html