Whether Hanoi should stamp out footpathvendors and street markets and expand supermarkets topped the agenda ata Public Service conference in Hanoi this week.
Manyconference delegates said supermarkets play an important role in urbanlife, but if small markets are stamped out, other temporary marketswill spring up, making it difficult for authorities to keep control.
This was not to mention the number of people whose livelihood depend on selling produce at such markets.
Under a plan to upgrade and develop the city’s market system until2020, Hanoi would have 489 markets, 162 commercial centres and 178supermarkets.
Participants also argued that footpaths in Hanoi have gradually losttheir function for pedestrians. They are now used foe business purposessuch as extensions to shop showrooms and food stalls and for streetvendors, parking motorbikes or repair services, they said.
Professor Ton Gia Huyen fron the Vietnam Land Science Association saidthe city’s development is outstripping its management.
Huyen said the city People’s Committee’s decision to allow traders touse footpaths wider than 3m to do their business from September 2007had created open slather with more than 2 million metres of footpathunder districts’ management.
However, head of the Ministry of Construction’s urban developmentmanagement department’s planning office Tran Lan Anh said manycountries permit multiple uses for footpaths, just that they needed tobe kept under strict control to ensure order and security./.
Manyconference delegates said supermarkets play an important role in urbanlife, but if small markets are stamped out, other temporary marketswill spring up, making it difficult for authorities to keep control.
This was not to mention the number of people whose livelihood depend on selling produce at such markets.
Under a plan to upgrade and develop the city’s market system until2020, Hanoi would have 489 markets, 162 commercial centres and 178supermarkets.
Participants also argued that footpaths in Hanoi have gradually losttheir function for pedestrians. They are now used foe business purposessuch as extensions to shop showrooms and food stalls and for streetvendors, parking motorbikes or repair services, they said.
Professor Ton Gia Huyen fron the Vietnam Land Science Association saidthe city’s development is outstripping its management.
Huyen said the city People’s Committee’s decision to allow traders touse footpaths wider than 3m to do their business from September 2007had created open slather with more than 2 million metres of footpathunder districts’ management.
However, head of the Ministry of Construction’s urban developmentmanagement department’s planning office Tran Lan Anh said manycountries permit multiple uses for footpaths, just that they needed tobe kept under strict control to ensure order and security./.
