Every Da Nang argument about traffic, floods, beaches or rent eventually runs into the same document: the city's general plan. A new one, covering the merged city to 2050 with a vision to 2075, just cleared one of its last big hurdles.

On September 8, an inter-ministerial appraisal council chaired by Deputy Minister of Construction Nguyen Tuong Van reviewed the plan at the Ministry of Construction, LSVN reported. The planning task was approved in April under Decision 628/QD-TTg. The City Party Committee endorsed the plan in late August. The council asked the city to fold in its comments and submit the plan to the Prime Minister for approval.

The numbers

According to CafeLand, reporting on the August 18 Party Committee meeting, the plan projects about 6 million people by 2050 and space to accommodate about 8 million. The merged city covers more than 11,000 square kilometers and has just over 3 million people today.

City Party Secretary Le Ngoc Quang called the 8 million figure very large and said its scientific basis needed clarifying. He also said the city would not trade landscape, environment or quality of life for short-term growth, and that the plan must turn into detailed plans and funded projects so it doesn't stay "on paper."

The consultants' model is "3 regions, 3 growth poles, 2 axes, 4 corridors." The poles are the existing core; a high-tech industrial hub around Lien Chieu port in the north; and an open-economy zone linking South Hoi An and Chu Lai in the south. A May workshop floated a "20-minute city," with schools, clinics, shops, parks and transit a short trip from home. Preliminary estimates put the total investment need at about $345 billion to $350 billion. Those are consultation figures, not approved budgets.

What the ministries pushed back on

The appraisal council's comments, per LSVN, read like a list of the city's real stress points:

  • Scale back or justify land reclamation and population ceilings.
  • Build a combined hazard map of landslides, floods and sea-level rise to decide where building is safe, and define "sponge city" water-retention space.
  • Standardize drainage and flood rules.
  • Cap cemetery land and raise cremation rates.
  • Set zones where underground construction is banned.
  • Coordinate low-altitude airspace for drones and air taxis with the Defense Ministry.

The plan also leans on culture: protecting Hoi An and My Son, turning the Co Co, Thu Bon and Truong Giang river axis into ecological and cultural space, and adding a large international-scale public square.

Why you should care now

General plans are where cities lock in what gets built on the beach, where the water goes in a flood and how far you'll commute. Once it's approved by the Prime Minister, arguing gets much harder. The hazard map and the population ceiling are the two items residents should ask to see in full before that happens.

Sources

This story was compiled by the Da Nang Voice news desk from the published sources listed above. Facts, figures and quotes are attributed to those sources; Da Nang Voice did not conduct interviews for it unless the text says so. Corrections are dated and noted at the top of the story. Read our corrections policy. Spotted an error? Tell us.