The planning of rural areas must ensure the preservation of cultural identity

On the morning of June 28, continuing the agenda of the 7th session of the 15th National Assembly, under the chairmanship of National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man, the National Assembly discussed the draft Law on Urban Planning and Rural Planning in the hall.

Speaking at the discussion session, delegate Duong Khac Mai (Đak Nong) expressed strong agreement with the development of the draft Law on Urban Planning and Rural Planning to complete policies and laws on planning, harmoniously combining urban development with the construction of new rural areas, meeting the requirements of sustainable socio-economic development.

The delegate emphasized that in the trend of opening up, receiving, and absorbing influences from many cultures, urban and rural planning is facing significant challenges, the most noticeable being in terms of architecture. Globalization, modernization, and urbanization have generated some negative impacts on traditional architectural values.

Rural landscapes are gradually losing their characteristic cultural symbols such as banyan trees, village communal houses, and traditional architecture, being replaced by tube houses and foreign or stereotypical architectural styles.

Therefore, to ensure sustainable development planning, it is necessary to research and add principles on protecting, inheriting, and promoting traditional values and national cultural identity, respecting regional cultural spaces to Article 7 on principles of urban and rural planning activities. Similarly, it is recommended to review Clause 6 of Article 2 on terminology explanations to include cultural factors along with socio-economic factors.

Meanwhile, contributing to the draft Law on Urban Planning and Rural Planning, delegate Nguyen Thi Ngoc Xuan (Binh Duong) expressed agreement with the Government's proposal and the verification report of the Economic Committee.

However, regarding Article 15 on the procedures for formulating, appraising, and approving urban and rural planning, delegate Xuân suggested adding content on soliciting public opinions on urban and rural planning to align with current laws.

Adding further comments on the draft, delegate Hoang Van Cuong (Ha Noi) emphasized that urban and rural planning are two different categories but are interrelated. Therefore, the development of the Law on Urban Planning and Rural Planning is extremely necessary to have a comprehensive planning system that ensures integration and comprehensiveness, avoiding overlapping plans, and harmonizing urban development with rural construction.

According to the delegate from the Capital's delegation, the development of this Law is also an opportunity for us to comprehensively review all plans related to urban and rural areas to establish a logical, hierarchical planning system; serving as both a basis for implementing lower-level plans and concretizing higher-level plans.

Delegate Hoang Van Cuong pointed out that although urban and rural plans have been filtered, there are still overlaps within the planning system adjusted by this draft Law as well as the plans adjusted by the Planning Law.

He also provided examples, stating that according to this draft Law, a province will have general plans for cities under the province, general plans for towns, and general plans for districts, all covering the entire spatial area of a province. But then there are also general plans for functional areas, which might overlap with the above plans.

Or there are sub-urban plans, but also plans for towns with the same scale; general plans for districts and general plans for communes with the same scale; how will the general plans for districts and regional plans for districts be defined to avoid overlapping...

Currently, there are cases where general plans often reiterate provincial plans. Therefore, the delegate proposed that the draft Law should review and clarify this issue.