Hanoi, Hà Nội City City, Red River Delta, Vietnam

Economy | Infrastructural development | Civil society development

🇻🇳 Hanoi is the capital city of Vietnam situated in the north of Vietnam. It is the second largest city in Vietnam, it consists of 12 urban districts, 1 district-level town and 17 rural districts. Located within the Red River Delta, Hanoi is the cultural and political centre of Vietnam.

Hanoi traced its history back to the third century BCE, when a portion of the modern-day city served as the capital of the historic Vietnamese nation of Âu Lạc. Following the collapse of Âu Lạc, the city was part of Han China. In 1010, Vietnamese emperor Lý Thái Tổ established the capital of the imperial Vietnamese nation Đại Việt in modern-day central Hanoi, naming the city Thăng Long (literally "Ascending Dragon"). Thăng Long remained Đại Việt's political centre until 1802, when the Nguyễn dynasty, the last imperial Vietnamese dynasty, moved the capital to Huế. The city was renamed Hanoi in 1831, and served as the capital of French Indochina from 1902 to 1945. On 6 January 1946, the National Assembly of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam designated Hanoi as the capital of the newly-independent country, which would last during the First Indochina War (1946–1954) and the Vietnam War (1955–1975). Hanoi has been the capital of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam since 1976.

Hanoi hosts various venerable educational institutions and cultural venues of significance, including the Vietnam National University, the Mỹ Đình National Stadium, and the Vietnam National Museum of Fine Arts. Amongst its achievements, it has a UNESCO World Heritage Site—The Central Sector of the Imperial Citadel of Thăng Long, first constructed in 1011AD. Hanoi was the only Asia-Pacific locality to be granted the "City for Peace" title by the UNESCO on 16 July 1999, recognizing its contributions to the struggle for peace, its efforts to promote equality in the community, protect the environment, promote culture and education, and care for younger generations. Hanoi joined UNESCO's Network of Creative Cities as a Design City on 31 October 2019, on the occasion of World Cities' Day. The city has also hosted numerous international events, including APEC Vietnam 2006, 132nd Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU-132), 2019 North Korea–United States Hanoi Summit, as well as the 2003 Southeast Asian Games, 2009 Asian Indoor Games, and the 2021 Southeast Asian Games.

Economy According to a recent ranking by PricewaterhouseCoopers, Hanoi and Saigon will be amongst the fastest-growing cities in the world in terms of GDP growth from 2008 to 2025. In the year 2013, Hanoi contributed 12.6% to GDP, exported 7.5% of total exports, contributed 17% to the national budget and attracted 22% investment capital of Vietnam. The city's nominal GDP at current prices reached 451,213 billion VND (21.48 billion USD) in 2013, which made per capita GDP stand at 63.3 million VND (3,000 USD). Industrial production in the city has experienced a rapid boom since the 1990s, with average annual growth of 19.1 percent from 1991 to 1995, 15.9 percent from 1996 to 2000, and 20.9 percent during 2001–2003. In addition to eight existing industrial parks, Hanoi is building five new large-scale industrial parks and 16 small- and medium-sized industrial clusters. The non-state economic sector is expanding fast, with more than 48,000 businesses operating under the Enterprise Law (as of 3/2007).

Trade is another strong sector of the city. In 2003, Hanoi had 2,000 businesses engaged in foreign trade, having established ties with 161 countries and territories. The city's export value grew by an average 11.6 percent each year from 1996 to 2000 and 9.1 percent during 2001–2003. The economic structure also underwent important shifts, with tourism, finance, and banking now playing an increasingly important role. Hanoi's traditional business districts are Hoàn Kiếm, Hai Bà Trưng and Đống Đa; and newly developing Cầu Giấy, Nam Từ Liêm, Bắc Từ Liêm, Thanh Xuân and Hà Đông in the west.

Similar to Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi enjoys a rapidly developing real estate market. The most notable new urban areas are central Trung Hòa Nhân Chính, Mỹ Đình, the luxurious zones of The Manor, Ciputra, Royal City in the Nguyễn Trãi Street (Thanh Xuân District) and Times City in the Hai Bà Trưng District. With an estimated nominal GDP of US$42.04 billion as of 2019, it is the second most productive economic area of Vietnam (after Ho Chi Minh City).

Agriculture, previously a pillar in Hanoi's economy, has striven to reform itself, introducing new high-yield plant varieties and livestock, and applying modern farming techniques.

After the economic reforms that initiated economic growth, Hanoi's appearance has also changed significantly, especially in recent years. Infrastructure is constantly being upgraded, with new roads and an improved public transportation system. Hanoi has allowed many fast-food chains into the city, such as McDonald's, Lotteria, Pizza Hut, KFC, and others. Locals in Hanoi perceive the ability to purchase "fast-food" as an indication of luxury and permanent fixtures. Similarly, city officials are motivated by food safety concerns and their aspirations for a "modern" city to replace the 67 traditional food markets with 1,000 supermarkets by 2025. This is likely to increase consumption of less nutritious foods, as traditional markets are key for consumption of fresh rather than processed foods.

Over three-quarters of the jobs in Hanoi are state-owned. 9% of jobs are provided by collectively owned organizations. 13.3% of jobs are in the private sector. The structure of employment has been changing rapidly as state-owned institutions downsize and private enterprises grow. Hanoi has in-migration controls which allow the city to accept only people who add skills Hanoi's economy. A 2006 census found that 5,600 rural produce vendors exist in Hanoi, with 90% of them coming from surrounding rural areas. These numbers indicate the much greater earning potential in urban rather than in rural spaces. The uneducated, rural, and mostly female street vendors are depicted as participants of "microbusiness" and local grassroots economic development by business reports. In July 2008, Hanoi's city government devised a policy to partially ban street vendors and side-walk based commerce on 62 streets due to concerns about public health and "modernizing" the city's image to attract foreigners. Many foreigners believe that the vendors add a traditional and nostalgic aura to the city, although street vending was much less common prior to the 1986 Đổi Mới policies. The vendors have not able to form effective resistance tactics to the ban and remain embedded in the dominant capitalist framework of modern Hanoi.

Hanoi is part of the Maritime Silk Road that runs from the Chinese coast through the Strait of Malacca towards the southern tip of India to Mombasa, from there through the Red Sea via the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean, there to the Upper Adriatic region to the northern Italian hub of Trieste with its rail connections to Central Europe and the North Sea.

Infrastructural development A development master plan for Hanoi was designed by Ernest Hebrard in 1924, but was only partially implemented. The previous close relationship between the Soviet Union and Vietnam led to the creation of the first comprehensive plan for Hanoi with the assistance of Soviet planners between 1981 and 1984. It was never realized because it appeared to be incompatible with Hanoi's existing layout.

In recent years, two master plans have been created to guide Hanoi's development. The first was the Hanoi Master Plan 1990–2010, approved in April 1992. It was created out of collaboration between planners from Hanoi and the National Institute of Urban and Rural Planning in the Ministry of Construction. The plan's three main objectives were to create housing and a new commercial centre in an area known as Nghĩa Đô, expand residential and industrial areas in the Gia Lâm District, and develop the three southern corridors linking Hanoi to Hà Đông and the Thanh Trì District. The end result of the land-use pattern was meant to resemble a five cornered star by 2010. In 1998, a revised version of the Hanoi Master plan was approved to be completed in 2020. It addressed the significant increase of population projections within Hanoi. Population densities and high rise buildings in the inner city were planned to be limited to protect the old parts of inner Hanoi. A rail transport system is planned to be built to expand public transport and link the Hanoi to surrounding areas. Projects such as airport upgrading, a golf course, and cultural villages have been approved for development by the government.

Hanoi is still faced with the problems associated with increasing urbanization. Although it is a major transport hub with a large network of national routes, expressways, railways, and is home to Noi Bai International Airport, the busiest airport in Vietnam, the disparity of wealth between the rich and the poor is a problem in both the capital and throughout the country. Hanoi's public infrastructure was assessed as in poor condition with high amounts of pollution and congestion in 2001. The city also has frequent power cuts, air and water pollution, difficult road conditions, traffic congestion, and a rudimentary public transit system. Traffic congestion and air pollution are worsening as the number of motor cycles increases. Squatter settlements are expanding on the outer rim of the city as homelessness rises (2001).

In the late 1980s, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Vietnamese government had designed a project to develop rural infrastructure. The project focused on improving roads, water supply and sanitation, and educational, health and social facilities because economic development in the communes and rural areas surrounding Hanoi is dependent on the infrastructural links between the rural and urban areas, especially for the sale of rural products. The project aimed to use locally available resources and knowledge such as compressed earth construction techniques for building. It was jointly funded by the UNDP, the Vietnamese government, and resources raised by the local communities and governments. In four communes, the local communities contributed 37% of the total budget. Local labor, community support, and joint funding were decided as necessary for the long-term sustainability of the project.

Civil society development Part of the goals of the Đổi Mới economic reforms was to decentralise governance for purpose of economic improvement. This led to the establishment of the first issue-oriented civic organisations in Hanoi. In the 1990s, Hanoi experienced significant poverty alleviation as a result of both the market reforms and civil society movements. Most of the civic organisations in Hanoi were established after 1995, at a rate much slower than in Ho Chi Minh City. Organisations in Hanoi are more "tradition-bound", focused on policy, education, research, professional interests, and appealing to governmental organizations to solve social problems. This marked difference from Ho Chi Minh's civic organisations, which practice more direct intervention to tackle social issues, may be attributed to the different societal identities of North and South Vietnam. Hanoi-based civic organisations use more systematic development and less of a direct intervention approach to deal with issues of rural development, poverty alleviation, and environmental protection. They rely more heavily on full-time staff than volunteers. In Hanoi, 16.7% of civic organisations accept anyone as a registered member and 73.9% claim to have their own budgets, as opposed to 90.9% in Ho Chi Minh City. A majority of the civic organisations in Hanoi find it difficult to work with governmental organisations. Many of the strained relations between non-governmental and governmental organisations results from statism, a bias against non-state organisations on the part of government entities.

Hanoi, Hà Nội City City, Red River Delta, Vietnam 
<b>Hanoi, Hà Nội City City, Red River Delta, Vietnam</b>
Image: Adobe Stock VietDung #322066450

Hanoi is rated Beta by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC) which evaluates and ranks the relationships between world cities in the context of globalisation. Beta level cities are cities that link moderate economic regions to the world economy.

Hanoi was ranked #143 by the Nomad List which evaluates and ranks remote work hubs by cost, internet, fun and safety. Hanoi has a population of over 8,053,663 people. Hanoi also forms the centre of the wider Hanoi metropolitan area which has a population of over 20,000,000 people. Hanoi is ranked #191 for startups with a score of 2.431.

To set up a UBI Lab for Hanoi see: https://www.ubilabnetwork.org Twitter: https://twitter.com/UBILabNetwork

Hanoi is a member of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network for Design see: https://en.unesco.org/creative-cities

Twin Towns, Sister Cities Hanoi has links with:

🇹🇷 Ankara, Turkey 🇰🇿 Astana, Kazakhstan 🇹🇭 Bangkok, Thailand 🇨🇳 Beijing, China 🇷🇴 Bucharest, Romania 🇨🇳 Cheongwen, China 🇯🇵 Fukuoka, Japan 🇮🇩 Jakarta, Indonesia 🇧🇾 Minsk, Belarus 🇨🇦 Montreal, Canada 🇷🇺 Moscow, Russia 🇰🇿 Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan 🇮🇹 Palermo, Italy 🇫🇷 Paris, France 🇰🇭 Phnom Penh, Cambodia 🇿🇦 Pretoria, South Africa 🇰🇷 Seoul, South Korea 🇨🇳 Shunyi, China 🇫🇷 Toulouse, France 🇸🇨 Victoria, Seychelles 🇵🇱 Warsaw, Poland 🇯🇵 Yokohama, Japan
Text Atribution: Wikipedia Text under CC-BY-SA license | GaWC | Nomad | StartupBlink

Antipodal to Hanoi is: -74.146,-21.028

Locations Near: Hanoi 105.854,21.0284

🇻🇳 Hoàn Kiếm 105.85,21.017 d: 1.4  

🇻🇳 Đông Anh 105.833,21.15 d: 13.7  

🇻🇳 Bắc Ninh 106.056,21.184 d: 27.2  

🇻🇳 Phúc Yên 105.7,21.233 d: 27.8  

🇻🇳 Sơn Tây 105.507,21.137 d: 38  

🇻🇳 Vĩnh Yên 105.607,21.312 d: 40.6  

🇻🇳 Bắc Giang 106.192,21.271 d: 44.2  

🇻🇳 Hưng Yên 106.067,20.65 d: 47.5  

🇻🇳 Hải Dương 106.323,20.948 d: 49.5  

🇻🇳 Việt Trì 105.428,21.306 d: 53.9  

Antipodal to: Hanoi -74.146,-21.028

🇨🇱 Iquique -70.15,-20.217 d: 19589.6  

🇨🇱 Arica -70.317,-18.467 d: 19523.5  

🇵🇪 Tacna -70.249,-18.015 d: 19486.8  

🇨🇱 Calama -68.933,-22.467 d: 19453.5  

🇵🇪 Juliaca -70.133,-15.483 d: 19267.1  

🇵🇪 Ica -75.733,-14.067 d: 19222.9  

🇨🇱 Copiapó -70.317,-27.35 d: 19212.1  

🇵🇪 Andahuaylas -73.383,-13.65 d: 19190.7  

🇧🇴 El Alto -68.159,-16.51 d: 19209.2  

🇧🇴 La Paz -68.15,-16.5 d: 19207.8  

Bing Map

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