Eliminating bottlenecks in land fund for cultural industry

From the relocation of Hanoi Beer Factory

Recently, in response to voters' petitions, the Hanoi People's Committee said that the land plot at 183 Hoang Hoa Tham street, which is being allocated for use by Hanoi Beer - Alcohol - Beverage Joint Stock Company, is a land plot subject to relocation. The area is oriented to plan land use functions to arrange schools.

At the end of 2025, Hanoi also had an official dispatch on the implementation of the Project to build and form a tourist destination for the Hanoi Beer Museum at land plot No. 183 Hoang Hoa Tham street.

The conversion of land of the Hanoi Beer Factory to build schools and museums is considered the right direction in developing education and serving the Capital's culture. However, allocating land for the cultural industry needs to be more synchronous.

Talking to Lao Dong Newspaper, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Bui Hoai Son - Specialized Member of the National Assembly's Committee for Culture and Society - said: "The 3 biggest bottlenecks of cultural investment today are planning, land and procedures. In fact, many cultural projects cannot be formed or are slow to implement not because of lack of social needs, but because of planning, lack of land fund and prolonged procedures.

Not only entangled in planning, the reality over the years shows that land is always a "bottleneck of the bottleneck". Many cultural projects, despite having good ideas and investors' interest, still have to stop because they do not have clean land funds or land rents are too high. Private museums, creative spaces, cinemas or art performance centers all face a common difficulty: lack of stable premises, lack of land access mechanisms suitable to cultural characteristics.

In fact, Hanoi is also trying to remove these bottlenecks. According to the Hanoi Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the city is operating 5 cultural industrial centers, of which the city has approved the project of 2 centers at Cua Nam, Dong Xuan - Bac Qua; the remaining 3 centers are expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2026. The city also focuses on building experiential cultural tourism products, creative activities and continuing to promote the role of a member of UNESCO's Creative Cities Network.

For key projects, Hanoi identifies investment in symbolic works such as the city-level Theater with an area of about 9,000m2, the city cultural center with a scale of 20 - 30ha, the Sports Complex in Dong Anh, Me Linh, supplementing the system of cultural institutions and the capacity to organize international events of Hanoi.

To make culture more "land" for performance

In Ho Chi Minh City, the issue of land fund for cultural activities is also a concern for many artists. At a meeting with Ho Chi Minh City leaders with representatives of press and publishing agencies and typical artists at the beginning of 2026, many artists frankly stated the situation that public service supply centers only sign location rental contracts annually, which is putting the theater in a passive position. A 1-year contract is too short for a type of art that requires long-term investment: From renovating performance space, sound and lighting systems, to staging scripts, training actors, building audiences. When the future of the premises is precarious, many units dare not "pour" money into large works.

According to artist Quoc Thao, socialized theater is falling into a "crisis of performance venues". He emphasized that doing art requires 5-10 years of investment time, but in reality, a 1-year rental contract makes the unit operate vaguely, not knowing how to continue investing.

Artist Quoc Thao suggested that after arranging administrative units, many public works that are vacant can be converted into stable performance venues for the theater. When there is long-term space, spoken drama dares to invest in large works, becoming cultural products serving tourists in Ho Chi Minh City.

To expand the cultural space, in the group discussion session at the National Assembly held in April 2026, Politburo Member, Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee Tran Luu Quang also affirmed: Ho Chi Minh City must take the lead in cultural infrastructure and is implementing many large projects. According to Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee Tran Luu Quang, not only actively promoting large projects in this field, the city also pays great attention to renovating and repairing existing works.

For Ho Chi Minh City, the regeneration of urban heritage areas into creative cultural spaces is a necessary direction, creating differentiation. Old factories, ports, architectural works, historical neighborhoods and memories of Saigon - Ho Chi Minh City are special cultural resources.

Notably, Ho Chi Minh City is also urgently establishing a Fund for Cultural Industry Development under the venture capital model, and at the same time is developing a plan to build a 150ha film studio. The project is expected to meet the development needs of the film and television industry, creating a force to attract domestic and international-scale film production projects.

The requirement that by October 2026, localities such as: Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Hai Phong, Hue, Da Nang, Can Tho must identify land funds for cultural industrial parks and centers, centers for cultural innovation and digital content creation is considered a strategic orientation, creating momentum for the cultural industry to quickly break through, making culture truly become a spiritual foundation, an internal resource and an important driving force for national development in the new era.