Opening up new development space

These days, construction along Ring Road 1, on the Hoang Cau–Voi Phuc section in Ha Noi, is proceeding at a rapid pace. Relevant units are mobilising maximum manpower and equipment to complete site clearance work as soon as possible. Areas once densely packed with houses, shops, and temporary structures have now been almost entirely dismantled, giving way to a spacious and open site.

Witnessing the road transform day by day, many local residents have expressed their excitement and hope that, once completed, the project will finally put an end to traffic congestion that has persisted for many years.

Nguyen Van Hai, a resident of Dong Da Ward, said that the stretch was previously plagued by frequent traffic jams, especially during rush hours, making travel exhausting. “Now that the site has been cleared and the road widened, everyone is delighted and looking forward to the project’s early completion,” he shared enthusiastically.

Truong Viet Dung, Vice Chairman of the Ha Noi People’s Committee, noted that in just over five months, the wards of O Cho Dua, Giang Vo, and Lang had completed compensation, support, and resettlement arrangements, and recovered land from 1,295 households. By contrast, over the previous seven years, district authorities had managed to resolve only 686 cases. This is a highly significant outcome, as the area had long been considered one of the most complex bottlenecks of the project — a milestone demonstrating strong progress in implementing the two-tier local government model.

Tran Dinh Cuong, Director of the Ha Noi Civil Works Construction Investment Project Management Board, pledged that immediately after receiving cleared land from local authorities, the board would work with contractors to ensure technical traffic opening before January 15, 2026, not only removing an infrastructure bottleneck but also creating a more modern urban landscape for the area.

Ha Noi has commenced construction on a series of major large-scale projects, opening up new development space oriented towards a green, smart, and modern future.

Alongside this breakthrough in removing a long-standing constraint, the city has broken ground on a series of major large-scale projects, including the Olympic Sports Urban Area, the Red River Landscape Boulevard Axis, Tran Hung Dao Bridge, Ngoc Hoi Bridge, Tu Lien Bridge, and two urban railway lines — Nam Thang Long–Tran Hung Dao and Van Cao–Hoa Lac — opening up new development space oriented towards a green, smart, and modern future.

These are highlights in the bright picture of Ha Noi in 2025. Despite undertaking numerous major tasks, particularly the implementation of the two-tier local government model from July 1, 2025, the city, through proactive, creative, and resolute leadership, has overcome difficulties and achieved important and relatively comprehensive results across most sectors. The economy is estimated to have grown by 8.16%, fulfilling the target assigned by the Prime Minister. State budget revenue in the locality reached a new peak of 704.58 trillion VND, exceeding the estimate by 37%. Foreign direct investment surged by more than 70% to approximately 4.4 billion USD. Infrastructure, urban development, the environment, culture and society, education, social welfare, defence, security, and external relations have all been further strengthened, laying the groundwork for a new phase of development.

According to Vice Chairman Truong Viet Dung, Ha Noi’s breakthrough has not come from widespread incentives but from reorganising development space and adopting a governance model aligned with technological cycles. The city is restructuring overall development space around the Hoa Lac area towards a science and innovation urban zone, shaping a 600-hectare smart urban area to support the high-tech park, integrating research, training, production, and living space, and forming large-scale research and development centres capable of addressing strategic technological challenges. Strategic connectivity infrastructure, particularly Metro Line No. 5 (Van Cao–Hoa Lac), which commenced construction on December 19, is defined not merely as a transport project but as a tool to restructure the Capital’s development space, facilitating the formation of a new growth pole with spillover capacity.

Alongside these political tasks, the city has also achieved an institutional breakthrough. On December 12, 2025, Resolution No. 258/2025/QH15 on piloting several specific mechanisms and policies to implement major and important projects in the Capital was officially passed by the National Assembly and took effect for a five-year period.

Le Trung Hieu, Deputy Director of the Department of Finance, described this as an important legal decision that opens a new chapter in urban governance, infrastructure development, and socio-economic management of the Capital. The resolution removes a series of bottlenecks in implementing public investment and major infrastructure projects that are strategically significant for Ha Noi’s sustainable development and modernisation. In reality, the city is undertaking a large number of major projects, including Ring Road 4 of the Capital Region, the urban railway system, urban renovation, and the reconstruction of old apartment blocks. Without specific mechanisms and policies, numerous obstacles could arise, hindering the Capital from fully realising its role and position, particularly in the context of targeted double-digit growth in the 2026–2030 period.

Focusing on people and businesses

A key feature of Resolution No. 258/2025/QH15 is the delegation of greater authority to Ha Noi. The City People’s Council is empowered to decide on investment policy for public investment and public-private partnership (PPP) projects not using central budget funds. The Chairman of the City People’s Committee is authorised to approve investment policy for projects worth 30 trillion VND or more, or projects requiring urgent implementation or directed by competent authorities; and to select contractors and investors in special cases for certain key projects to accelerate progress.

Vu Dai Thang, Chairman of the Ha Noi People’s Committee, stated that the resolution creates a more flexible legal framework, removing long-standing obstacles related to planning, compensation and site clearance, and investment policy decisions. The city can implement key projects more swiftly, contributing to socio-economic development, improving infrastructure and people’s living standards, while enhancing governance credibility and capacity and generating momentum for the Capital’s development in the coming period.

Under the motto “Ha Noi delivers on its promises — acting swiftly, accurately, effectively, and through to completion”, Party Secretary Nguyen Duy Ngoc urged city departments and sectors at all levels, especially leaders, to uphold a strong sense of responsibility, review assigned tasks, provide timely guidance and supervision, promptly propose solutions and address grassroots difficulties, and avoid excessive administrative formalities and meetings without effective action. He called for concentrated efforts to resolve delays and backlogs. The Municipal Party Committee and the Municipal People’s Committee are to develop a detailed quarterly growth scenario for 2026 by sector and locality to achieve an economic growth target of 11% or higher. Each department, sector, commune, and ward must register specific targets for growth, budget revenue, public investment disbursement, improvement of the investment environment, and digital transformation. At the same time, he requested the city to continue promoting strong decentralisation and delegation of authority, substantially reduce the time required to handle administrative procedures, and create favourable conditions for citizens and businesses.