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Many cities of Vietnam, especially small cities, are facing the potential risk of
being unsustainable. They usually have the same economic structure, underdeveloped
infrastructure and insufficient resources for its improvement. Of course, the

restructuring process will take time and require efforts as well as investments, but the
poor master planning and the inconsistent implementation of the well prepared master
plans will delete achievements, or at least, slow down the process. On the other hand,
the environment pollution and urban traffic could not be reduced as expected. The high
increase of urban wastes risks that the problem could be worse (only the municipal solid
waste of Vietnam will increase annually 10%, which will be much higher in big cities
such as Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City) 138 . In that condition, spillover effects of big cities

could not be explored well for small cities and towns. Special cases of urban
unattainability are cities and towns in Mekong Delta and on the seaside, which will be
drowned partly in sea water if it rises under the influence of climate change.
Vietnam also tried to set up green cities, which was started with expanding the
green space in existing cities. Minimal limit for average green area per urban citizen is
one of key indicators in the socio- economic development plan of each city as well as

of the whole country and minimal percentage of green space is set up as a requirement,
which is a checkpoint for approving and monitoring every new urban housing project
in all cities of Vietnam. However, currently, the average green space per capita in
2
Vietnam is much lower than the official national standard, only 2- 3 m , equal to 1/5-
139
1/ 10 the international average . In Ho Chi Minh city, this indicator was in 2023 only
2
0.57 m / person.
5. Conclusions and recommendations
Strengthening urbanization is an important direction for Vietnam’s development

in the coming period. The Government of Vietnam improved and implemented the
National Strategy on Green Growth, in which urbanization is one of the main solutions.
The question is now how to integrate the urbanization with the green growth, i.e. how
to ensure a green urbanization effectively and efficiently. In accordance with the current
structure of urban governance, strengthening green urbanization through components
of “new, green urbanism” (green infrastructure, green community design, green

buildings, usage of green energy and materials, ecosystem and urban planning, transit
oriented development, etc.) has become more popular and convenient for practice.
However, urbanization is a complex process, green transformation of the urbanization
should be complex, too.
In order to strengthen the green urbanization, Vietnam could focus on following
solutions:
- Improving the awareness on the green urbanization;

138 Ngo Thanh Mai (2018), Community-based municipal solid waste management: a Case study of Hanoi.
139 Thanh Vân (2024), Developing the cities in the green direction before the alarm of air pollution.

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