Hanoi (VNA) – New-generation super cities are emerging not only as a trend of population redistribution from traditional urban cores, but also as a strategic choice for Vietnam’s long-term socio-economic development, forming growth poles, innovation hubs, and sustainable development spaces for the nation.
They are expected to help the country realise its ambition of balanced and high-quality growth in the decades ahead.
Revitalising and breathing new life into existing urban areas
At a scientific workshop, "New-generation megacities: Momentum for economic growth and sustainable urban development in Vietnam in the new era" held by the Vietnam Urban Planning and Development Agency (VUPDA) in Hanoi on March 21, experts highlighted the rapid transformation of Vietnam’s urban landscape in recent years.
According to Tran Thu Hang, Director of the Planning and Architecture Department under the Ministry of Construction (MoC), Vietnam’s urbanisation in recent years has advanced, making significant breakthroughs.
The urban system has expanded quickly in recent years, becoming more diverse in scale and function. Cities have increasingly served as engines of socio-economic development, while concentrating knowledge, creativity, innovation, and technology.
However, she noted that urban areas face growing challenges, including overloaded infrastructure, traffic congestion, environmental pollution, regional disparities, and increasing demands for digital transformation. These factors are now constraining sustainable growth.
Against this backdrop, Hang stressed that developing new-generation megacities is not merely an urban trend but a strategic necessity. Such cities are expected to create new growth poles, enhance innovation capacity, and strengthen Vietnam’s position in regional and global economic networks.
Many countries, and international organisations such as UN-Habitat, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and the World Bank, are also shifting their focus toward polycentric, networked, and smart governance-based urban models that emphasise sustainability and resilience.
La Kim Ngan from the Vietnam Association of Architects noted that new-generation megacities are defined not only by their scale, but by a comprehensive set of criteria, including polycentric structure, smart infrastructure, environmental sustainability, quality of life, and resilience.
Sharing this view, Bui Van Doanh, Director of the Vietnam Real Estate Research Institute under the Vietnam Real Estate Association (VREA), satellite megacities will help redistribute population density, one of the most pressing and complex challenges facing most older urban areas, providing more spacious living environments, and an alternative to the overcrowded and often suffocating conditions of traditional urban cores.
“Megacities not only create new living spaces, but also help ‘decompress,’ ‘revive,’ and inject new vitality into existing urban areas,” Doanh said.
Redistributing population and real estate capital flows
At the seminar, experts also discussed issues of scale and structure, as well as the institutional, infrastructure, and technological conditions needed for effective operation as Vietnam enters a new development era.
According to Truong Van Quang, Vice Secretary General of VUPDA, a well-connected infrastructure system plays a decisive role, from urban railways and interregional expressways to seaports, airports, digital infrastructure, and national data platforms. With such foundations in place, cities will no longer develop in isolation but instead form an integrated network.
The model of megacities in Vietnam should be built on pillars such as global economic functions, infrastructure connectivity and networks, innovation ecosystems, sustainable development, and smart urban governance, to ensure sustainable growth, high quality of life, and regional as well as global competitiveness, Quang said.
According to Pham Thi Mien, Deputy Director of the Vietnam Institute for Real Estate Market Research and Evaluation (VARS IRE), the “monocentric” development pattern of major cities over many years has led to the concentration of capital flows, population, and demand in central areas.
If the spatial structure of urban areas is not reformed, the real estate market will struggle to operate in a stable and sustainable manner over the long term, Mien said, noting that the next-generation megacity model is seen as a structural solution to create new ‘price zones’ and ease price pressures in central areas.
To realise this model, she emphasised the need for multiple conditions to converge, from inter-regional planning and transparent institutions to forward-looking infrastructure development and the participation of financially capable developers./.
