From slum to supercity: Da Nang targets world status

The central city of Da Nang should aspire to become a top destination and hub for tourism, finance, logistics and hi-tech investors, the director of the Viet Nam Institute of Economics, Tran Dinh Thien, has said at the Science Workshop on Da Nang’s 20-year Development and Future Outlook.


        The pristine beach of Hai Van is an ideal location for a world luxury entertainment centre.

“Da Nang is a young city with positive policies on boosting economic development and foreign investment. But the city has yet to take full advantage of its central coastal position and a rendezvous point of north and south Viet Nam,” Thien said in his presentation to the workshop held last week.

“The city has not developed a link between beach and mountain tourism and tourism to other destinations in the central region,” he said.

Thien suggested that the city’s leadership consider how to develop Da Nang as a regular world centre of exhibitions and fairs to attract tourism, trade and investors – as places like Dubai and Bali did. He said Da Nang lacks a world standard entertainment and shopping centre to boost luxury tourism and spending.   

Vice chairman of the city’s People’s Committee, Dang Viet Dung, said the city had significant development achievements since it separated from Quang Nam Province and came under the direct control of the central government 20 years ago, along with the main cities of Ha Noi, HCM City, Hai Phong and Can Tho.  

Dung said the city’s economic restructuring resulted in industry and service accounting for 97 per cent, and agriculture for only two per cent.

He said the city’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) brought in nearly VND50 trillion ($2.2 billion) in 1997-15, with a stable growth of 10.47 per cent annually.

Still small scale

Dung, however, admitted that the city’s economy was small scale, with 95 per cent being small and medium-sized businesses and with investment capital under VND500 million ($22,000), each.

“The city will aim to develop high-tech agriculture and industry, tourism and services, logistics with good connections among the airport, deep sea port, north-south expressway and railway system in 2037,” Dung said.

Deputy Secretary of the city’s party, Vo Cong Tri, said the city had turned from being a slum in the Son Tra Peninsula to being a beach tourism destination in just 20 years.

“The city will eye tourism as a major source of revenue for its budget, That’s the reason the People’s Council decided to build Da Nang as a livable city in terms of four criteria – social security, traffic safety, food safety and social welfare – in the 2016-20 period,” Tri said.


                         An overview of Da Nang’s downtown. -- Photos: Cong Thanh/VNS

Last month, the city submitted an adjustment to its master urban plan for 2030-2050 to the Government, with an aim of developing Da Nang as a green city by 2025, and an economic hub of the central region and a driving force for boosting development of the central and Central Highlands regions.

The Government issued special regulations concerning investment, budgetary status and decentralisation for Da Nang.

Da Nang also plans to build an underground traffic system with road tunnels and a metro system in the coming years.

As planned, the city will include six inner districts and two suburban districts of Hoa Vang and Hoang Sa Island, with an expected population of 2.5 million.

The city will be developed on 128,543ha, of which the Hoang Sa (Paracel) islands cover 30,500ha.

Da Nang, situated at the end of the East-West Economic Corridor linking Laos, Thailand, Myanmar and Viet Nam, will reserve a 130ha centre for finance, banking, trade and services, and a 3,700ha coastal service area.

VNS