According to Mr. Tran Ngoc Chinh - Chairman of the Vietnam Urban Planning and Development Association, removing construction permits is not simply for people to build according to their wishes but must be based on the approved 1/500 detailed plan and the place where the urban design is located.
"To do this, detailed planning must include all contents such as height, construction density, how to retreat, how to green trees, and even connecting to traffic infrastructure in the area," said Mr. Chinh.
Therefore, the Chairman of the Vietnam Urban Planning and Development Association said that the first thing to do when moving towards removing the construction permit is to calculate and carefully review detailed plans at different levels to assess whether people can continue construction or not.
Faced with concerns that removing the construction permit will lead to difficulties in urban management, Mr. Tran Ngoc Chinh said: "I think there is no need to worry too much about construction chaos, the most important thing here is that local authorities must strictly comply with construction based on detailed planning".
Emphasizing the role of the commune and ward levels in ensuring construction order and urban architecture, Mr. Chinh said that grassroots cadres must have sufficient capacity to manage.
"Instead of previous inspection activities, we assign them to the grassroots level for inspection and examination. Grassroots officers also need to have expertise and legal knowledge to be able to conduct pre-inspections and post-inspections in managing construction activities.
People who do wrong must have opinions from the beginning, not just let them do the wrong thing. This is a very important matter for urban government," Mr. Chinh shared.
The Vietnamese urban planning system is designed according to three levels: master plan, zoning plan and detailed plan 1/500. This model helps to manage urban areas synchronously, ensuring tight control in infrastructure development.
With the policy of abolishing construction permits in the context of organizing local government at 2 levels, the operation of the urban planning system will need to be adjusted to suit the new administrative model. In particular, there needs to be close coordination between planning levels.
Some urban experts said that when the district level is abolished, some tasks of overall planning management and urban supervision will be transferred to the provincial level. At the same time, many administrative procedures directly related to construction will be decentralized to the commune level, helping localities process documents quickly and in accordance with reality.
In this context, removing construction permits will speed up the appraisal process, creating convenience for businesses and people in the process of implementing investment and construction projects. However, it clearly demonstrated the supervisory role of the grassroots level so that the construction works still comply with the planning.
