Model of a city in a city in the world

10/06/2020

The project of establishing Thu Duc city on the basis of merging districts 2, 9 and Thu Duc. This city is expected to be a grade 1 city directly under Ho Chi Minh City, which means it will be a "city within a city" model that is not yet present in our country's administrative management system. In order for people to better understand this model, DTTC introduces a series of articles by Assoc. NGUYEN MINH HOA, urban expert, who has studied this model in many countries around the world.
Model of city in the province
There are many large cities in the world located in an administrative unit of a province. Russia today inherits the legacy from the time of the Soviet Union still maintaining the provincial form, including a system of multi-level cities from the capital to large cities, medium cities, small cities, towns and even agricultural villages. interstitial.
Moscow province was established in 1929, covers an area of 44,300 square kilometers, population 25 million. This administrative unit has 28 cities, including the capital Moscow. The capital Moscow has an area of 2,500 square kilometers, with 11 million inhabitants, although it is the largest city with a special management mechanism, it is still located in the Moscow province.
Gyeonggi Province is the largest administrative unit of Korea, with an area of 10,200 square kilometers, a population of 14 million. It includes 31 cities, industrial zones and agricultural villages, craft villages. Seoul capital has an area of 605km2, a population of 9 million people located in the territory of this province, although it has a special status under the government since 1949, it is still considered an administrative level in the province.
In the world, there are many mega-cities in the province, including Wuhan with an area of 8,000 square kilometers, a population of 11 million people in Hubei province.
In Vietnam, there used to be a model of a large city in the province. In 1832, the Nguyen Dynasty established Gia Dinh province (formerly known as Phien An), with a very large boundary including Saigon, Cho Lon and other districts.
By 1956, Gia Dinh province was an administrative unit that did not include the city of Saigon, the headquarters was located in Ba Chieu area and after 1976 Gia Dinh was merged into Ho Chi Minh City and the name Gia Dinh was erased.

Since 1993, Ho Chi Minh City has tended to develop the city towards the East. Photo: HOANG HUNG

Urban model
In the world, there is another more popular model, the Urban Region. It is roughly understood as a large area containing many cities that can be of the same level (in terms of area, population and management level), or hierarchically multi-level (management hierarchy from high to low; hierarchy according to population size). , acreage). They are established by decision of the government and have a formal management apparatus.
We easily come across the names: Bangkok Capital Region (BCR)/Bangkok Metropolitan Area; Jabotabek Metropolitan Region (JMR)/Metropolitan Jakarta and Botabek; Kuala Lumpur Metropolitan Region (KLMR)/Kuala Lumpur Metropolitan Area; Manila Metropolitan Region (MMR)/Metropolitan Manila; Seoul Metropolitan Region (SMR)/Seoul Metropolitan Area.
To make it easy for readers to visualize, we introduce a specific model, Metro Mania. When Vietnamese people travel in the Philippines, it is often understood as going to Manila, but in fact, Manila is just a small city located in an urban area of 17 cities called Metro Mania (Metro Manila). This is the same-level city model because these 17 cities are equivalent in terms of population (500,000-700,000 inhabitants), area and administrative management level are equivalent.
Each city is an independent political-administrative entity, with its own leadership and financial apparatus. The city's leadership apparatus consists of the mayor, two deputy mayors and the city council, elected by the people through a public election.
To coordinate actions, 17 cities set up councils of mayors, the chairman of the council is the rotating mayor, with a 1-year term (rotating in the 6 most influential cities). Along with the mayor's council is the coordination council (the most important body in planning and cooperation). The mayor's council operates under the direct direction of the president. 17 TP is mostly single function (calculated by main function).
For example, Manila is a political-diplomatic city; Makati City has a financial function; Industrial City of Markina; Kaloonkan hi-tech agricultural city; Quezon City is a Science-Education City, where the largest universities in the Philippines are concentrated, with Silicon Valley, a high-tech park, and a test manufacturing area (like the future Thu Duc City).

Proposed model of urban area of 5 cities at the same level (2013)

Model of Thu Duc City in Ho Chi Minh City
It can be affirmed that up to this point in the Vietnamese legal system, there is no model of a city in a city. In Section 2 of the Law on Organization of Local Government promulgated on June 19, 2005 (also in the revised versions), this type is mentioned, but it is "City under the Central Government" with the administrative level of the local government. only at the district level.
Therefore, the birth of Thu Duc city will have to consider 3 scenarios: First, establishing a province, such as Gia Dinh province, including Ho Chi Minh City; In the future, other cities may appear due to the development needs of financial cities, tourist cities, etc. This scenario is difficult to come true.
Second, forming its own urban area in Ho Chi Minh City. On May 20, 2008, the Prime Minister signed Decision 589/QD-TTg approving the planning of HCMC area to 2020 with a vision to 2050, with a total area of 30,404km2 and an influence radius of 150-200km. .
The scope of planning the HCMC area includes the entire administrative boundary of Ho Chi Minh City and 7 surrounding provinces including Binh Duong, Binh Phuoc, Tay Ninh, Long An, Ba Ria - Vung Tau, Tien Giang and Dong Nai.
According to the master plan, the Ho Chi Minh City area by 2050 has a population of about 28-30 million people, of which the urban population is 25-27 million people, the urbanization rate is about 90%. Ho Chi Minh City will be a nuclear city, in provinces that have independent satellite towns, dependent satellite cities or urban areas in the vicinity.
In this view, Ho Chi Minh City is the central nucleus, surrounding provinces are dependent units, the "expansion" part, and provincial cities such as Bien Hoa, Thu Dau Mot, Ba Ria, Vung Tau, Tan An is that the satellite TP may no longer be suitable.
In fact, developing over the past 10 years, the provinces of Dong Nai, Binh Duong, Tay Ninh, Ba Ria-Vung Tau are becoming an independent growth pole and counterbalance to Ho Chi Minh City. The inflow of foreign investment (FDI) into this area has grown faster and higher than that of Ho Chi Minh City, the rate of urbanization and growth is faster, while HCMC shows signs of saturation and slowing down, some comparative advantages such as land rent, skilled labor, high-quality service establishments, and human resource training institutions are strongly competitive and tend to decrease; Migration of labor force to the Eastern provinces is higher than that of Ho Chi Minh City.
Moreover, other advantages of Ho Chi Minh City may be lower, when this area can directly connect with 3 strong regions, namely the central urban strip, the Central Highlands and ASEAN through the border gates of Tay Ninh. Therefore, in the long-term strategy, it is necessary to consider the northern provinces and cities of the city as equal cooperative units, not as dependent or secondary units in the large urban area.
Therefore, the urban area of Ho Chi Minh City according to Decision 589 should be understood as the area of connection and influence of Ho Chi Minh City. Ho Chi Minh City itself can completely form its own urban area.
In this case, the model of urban government in Ho Chi Minh City submitted to the Government in 2013 is very similar and close to the urban model of the Philippines at the same level. That model has 5 cities, including the central city and 4 surrounding cities, East-Western-Southern-Northern, of which the Eastern city corresponds to Thu Duc city (proposed).
Unfortunately, this model was rejected, because it did not explain how it operates and how the relationship between these 5 cities is between centralization and decentralization. This model seems difficult to realize.
Third, do not build Thu Duc City into a first-class city directly under the Central Government or directly under Ho Chi Minh City, but just a city at the district level (as in the current Law on Local Government) and also according to recent suggestions. most recent of the Ministry of the Interior. According to scenarios 1 and 2, the law will have to be revised, and if under scenario 3, no need to change the law, no need to submit it to the National Assembly.
This model seems to be more feasible not only in legal terms, but also in economic, social and spatial planning aspects. But if according to this model, the project needs to be adjusted because the city is equal to the district, the district has a smaller population and area, only equivalent to a class 2 city with 300,000 people.
As for now, according to the scheme, Thu Duc city has a population of 1.1 million people, equivalent to a grade 1 city directly under the Central Government (equal to Can Tho and Da Nang).

Associate Professor. Nguyen Minh Hoa/Investment Saigon