The city's green space is shrinking significantly, with just one sq m available per person compared to 1.6 sq m in 2005.
Thatfigure is comparatively low, with Paris, for example, having 11.5 sq mof green space per person, and Santiago, Chile 19 sq m.
The Citywill plant 400,000 perennial trees on public office grounds and roads insuburban districts, as well as along rivers and canals.
Another533,300 trees including sao (cassia), bang lang (crape myrtle) apricotand phi lao (beefwood) will be planted at cultural and historic parksand on city streets. At least 350 bang (almond) trees will be planted inschool gardens.
The city's Parks and Green Trees Company, incoordination with the municipal Forestry Office, will also plant morethan 60,000 perennial trees in Binh Chanh district's Le Minh Xuanvillage.
The Parks company said the purple colour of the banglang flowers, which blossom year-round, will add more charm to thecity's streets, including District 3's Nguyen Dinh Chieu street andDistrict 5's Nguyen Trai street.
Work is underway to improve existing parks and other green spaces.
HCMCity has 71,000 trees on streets, but the city's land area for parksthis year fell to 700 ha from 1,000ha in 1998, according to the city'sTransport Department.
Park acreage has shrunk because of rapid urbanisation and developers' disregard for the city's green-space norms.
Thearea of Gia Dinh Park in Tan Binh district, for example, was reducedafter land was handed over for the construction of the Tan Son Nhat-BinhLoi outer belt road.
In addition, Tan Binh district's Hoang VanThu Park was divided into two to reduce traffic jams on streets leadingto the Tan Son Nhat Airport.
Efforts to increase the city'sgreen space will be more difficult in the future as urban developmentcontinues, according to the city's Natural Resources and EnvironmentDepartment.-VNA