Regional and Municipal Plans

This is an overview of several development plans executed in the Northwestern area, listed by the most recent date. These plans span across different scales, from international, national, regional to municipal and local, and across different focuses, from tourism to trade and general development. Some of these plans are actually already outdated; however, it is important to access the completion and success of the goals that were set out.

In 1992, all six provinces in the Northwestern Region are categorized as extremely impoverished, with much higher population under national poverty line than the average. Throughout the years, these development are slowly transforming not only the socio-economic condition, but also the natural landscape and urban-rural environment of this area.

We do not often hear about these developments on the news, besides some that related to the most touristy destinations, and this public attention and knowledge is also partially what decides future investment and development in the area.

1. General Plan for Development of National Tourism Zone of Moc Chau (Son La province) until 2030 (signed Jan 25, 2019)

• Overall description: The National Tourism Zone of Moc Chau is located in two districts Moc Chau and Van Ho in Son La provinces, with a total of natural area of 206.150 ha. This area attracts tourists for its vast plateau, green tea farms, and flower fields; it is one of the most typical landscapes of Northern midland mountainous area, is a national ecological forest conservation area, and has strategic location in national security and defense. The development plan is a very comprehensive plan for local development that will have broader impact on the whole region.
• Aim:
  – Develop the zone to become one of the core motivations for tourism of midland mountain, promote social development, improve residents’ life and ensure national security.
  – Promote the regional values of natural scenery, ethic cultures, and local identity.
  – Orientate the spatial organization, land usage, technical infrastructure system, environmental sanitation, social infrastructure and synchronized services.
  – Establish legal foundation for development and control.
• Major issue:
  – The diversity of the area requires many interdepartmental collaboration between different parties, such as the Finance Department, Culture and Tourism Department, Agriculture and Rural Area Development Department, Natural Resources and Environment Department, etc.
  – Sustainability: There is always a concern of over-exploitation of the area, as well as the loss of heritage in the process of developing tourism.
• Personal lesson and opinion on future of the area:
  – There are many areas that need to be considered while drafting a comprehensive development plans (even within some specific field such as partition into more specified zones).
  – There will be a bloom in infrastructure of the area, especially when many new national and international tourist routes are established, as well as new commercial areas and ecotourism destinations are funded.
• Link (in Vietnamese, from the official website of Government Vietnam archive)

Moc Chau, Son La province

2. General Plan for Development of Lao Cai Border-gate Economic Zone (Lao Cai province) until 2040, with vision until 2050 (signed Nov 23, 2018)

• Overall description: The Lao Cai Border-gate Economic Zone is one of the major gates from Vietnam to China, with a huge daily flow of goods imported and exported between the two countries. The area of this zone is about 16.000 ha, includes the city of Lao Cai and four adjacent districts.
• Aim:
  – Build the Economic Zone into a key driving economic region of Lao Cai province; develop industrial, urban, commercial and service cores with synchronous technical and socio-economic infrastructure; promote social economy, improve residents’ life living near the border; strengthen national security and maintain national sovereignty.
• Major issue: There needs to be a special focus as an economic zone at the border, which includes special areas and tasks such as financial and legal service for immigration, entertainment locations for businesses, as well as concentrated industrial area. Hence, creating a coordinated spatial plan that creates the least disturbance to the local communities is a challenging task.
• Personal lesson and opinion on future of the area: This is a good example of how to plan an urban area in a place of mainly rural landscape and population.
• Link (in Vietnamese, to the official website of Government of Vietnam archive)

Lao Cai Border-Gate, Lao Cai province

3. General Plan for Development of National Tourism Zone of Sapa (Lao Cai province) until 2030 (signed Sep 26, 2016)

• Overall description: The National Tourism Zone of Sapa locates at Sapa district, Lao Cai province, with the area of the core is about 1.500 ha. It is divided into four tourist subdivision. Sapa is the most famous tourist attraction of the Northwestern region, and one of the major representatives of natural landscapes in Vietnam, with 2 millions visitors in 2019.
• Aim:
  – Develop the tourism zone while simultaneously protect culture and heritage of minorities ethnic groups; maximize the advantage on weather and landscape, while responding to climate change and natural disasters.
  – Continue the traditional tourism market from Europe, US, Australia, and China; expand to other markets by increase accessibility for tourists who travel in nearby locations of Southeast Asia and Southern China; focus on the segmentation of weekend tourism, ecotourism, convalescence, resort; diversify tourism products.
  – Establish the spatial connection between different subdivisions; harmonize the built with natural environment; limit impact of development to residents’ life.
• Major issue: Sapa is a famous destination; however, its reputation is being damaged as more people come, the urban becomes crowded and complex, hence “lost its authenticity.” Developments in this area are also criticized for being exploitative and unsustainable, yet bring massive economic benefit (for example, the cable car to Fansipan – the highest mountain top of Vietnam – is ecologically harmful for the whole ecosystem, yet is a great source of revenue).
• Personal lesson and opinion on future of the area: This plan, more than any other that I listed here, especially focuses on solutions and detailed future development in the area. Sapa is more developed than many areas of the region, thus I am afraid that in the future, it will eventually lost many of its natural landscape and cultural heritage.
• Link (in Vietnamese, to the official website of Government of Vietnam archive)

Sapa, Lao Cai province

4. Overall Plan for Economic and Social Development of Lai Chau province until 2020 (signed Jan 28, 2013)

• Overall description: Lai Chau shares its border with China, hence the plan is especially focus on the exporting border economy, and consider hydroelectric, minerals, forestry, and industrial plants such as rubber and tea as major goods. The province is also where the upstream of Da River (which is one of two main rivers for hydroelectricity in the Northern Vietnam) locates, thus protecting the water source, reallocating residents in dams construction process, as well as ensure water security is also a big development agenda.
• Aim: Give instructions for different sector of the economy and development; within cultural and social issues, concentrate on education and medical.
• Major issue:
  – Lai Chau is a underdeveloped province due to its remote location, oft-neglected by investment and funding, also does not have a strong tourism economy nor distinctive attractions, hence to shorten the economic distance in comparison to other provinces in the region while still preserves ecological heritage needs a lot of innovation.
  – The lack of talents and dedicated governors is also a very challenging, as not many educated young people want to come back to the province, hence the problem of corrupted old system that is mostly upper-class male persists.
• Personal lesson and opinion on future of the area: I think the province is in itself has many potential due to its richness in natural resources, which with responsible investment and careful long-term planning can benefit both the local residents and the natural ecosystem. However, it will be a big initial economic loss due to the rural nature of Lai Chau.
• Link (in Vietnamese, to the official website of Government of Vietnam archive)

Lai Chau province

5. Overall Plan for Economic and Social Development of the Northwestern Region, period 1996-2010 (signed Aug 30, 1997)

• Overall description: I cannot find a newer plan for the whole region, this is actually quite a short plan – general and not very detailed (only 5 pages, in comparison to most other plans I look at which are usually 20+ pages). It still gives overall goals and general solutions for each
• Aim:
  – Effectively exploit the regional strengths in agriculture, forestry, natural resources, minerals, tourism in order to improve production, total revenue of the local government, quality of life and the spirit of ethnic minorities;
  – Develop different kinds of goods, ensure of rational economic structure that harmonizes both local market as well as national and international markets.
  – Protect and promote the tradition and patronage of the ethnic minorities, improve their resources and intellectuals;
  – Protect ecological environment while developing socio-economic; preserve forest to minimize short-term damage caused by floods;
  – Ensure political security, social safety and general security in the region.
• Major issue: The regions are very diverse, hence the solutions need to be much more specialized. One of the main concerned areas was infrastructure, especially roads and transportation – this has vastly improved since the plan was released 25 years ago.
• Personal lesson and opinion on future of the area: While there are specific aims with statistic, the bigger the area, the more difficult it is to have a comprehensive long-term development plan. Many of the goals are quite abstract and theoretical still – it is much easier to evaluate once the specific and numerical aims are listed (such as the percentage of households above the poverty line). Some of the goals are not met.
• Link (in Vietnamese, to the official website of Government of Vietnam archive)