Like in other Vietnamese localities, 2020 showed itself as a very tough year for Da Nang heavily burdened by unexpected situations both sparked by COVID-19 and unfovourable weather conditions. No matter how these unexpected incidents adversely affect it, Da Nang still showed off some encouraging achievements, making bright spots on the horizon and laying a firm foundation for Da Nang to make more breakthrough development stride next year.

Here are top ten Da Nang events in 2020, as selected by the Da Nang Newspaper.

1. The great success of the 22^nd Da Nang Party Committee Congress for the 2020 - 2025 tenure

The 22^nd Da Nang Party Committee Congress for the 2020 - 2025 tenure ran from 20 to 22 October, proving its great success

The Executive Board of the Da Nang Party Committee Congress for the next five years also made their debuts

Notable on the event’s agenda were specific reports on Da Nang’s performance review for the 2015 – 2020 tenure, and adopting a handful of important resolutions with specific targets and criteria for the 2020 - 2025 period. A list of specific plans and projects were rolled out to bring the resolutions to life.

The convention put the spotlight on group discussions about building up Da Nang’s stronger political system, promoting public consensus and solidarity, maintaining national defence and security, and developing Da Nang into a big socio-economic, ecological, modern, smart and worth living city by 2025.

2. A piloted urban governance model

A burgeoning corner of Da Nang

On 19 June, 2020, the 9^th session of the 14^th National Assembly (NA) adopted a resolution on piloting the urban governance model and a number of specific mechanisms along with policies in favour of  Da Nang’s progress.

Under the pilot scheme, from 1 July, 2021, the People’s Council and the People’s Committee apparatuses will only be available at the municipal level.

Meanwhile, urban districts and wards will only have people’s committees whose leaders are appointed by the chairperson of the higher-level people’s committee. District- and ward-level people’s councils, therefore, will be scrapped.

Da Nang lawmakers remarked Da Nang is a centrally managed municipality that covers a modest area of land and has a rapid level of urbanisation. Its population characteristics and terrains are also poised to facilitate the organisation of a streamlined urban governance model.

3. COVID-19 outbreaks contained successfully

Da Nang has been proud of its success in containing two coronavirus waves in late March and late July, respectively.

Party Committee Secretary Nguyen Van Quang (right) paying his inspection visit to the Da Nang Lung Hospital in August, 2020

Da Nang has remained strong on its feet in pursuing the dual goal of containing the pandemic in tandem with driving the social-economic operations.

Under the adverse impact of the coronavirus crisis, the growth rate of Da Nang gross regional domestic product (GRDP) in 2020 plummeted by 9.77% compared to 2019 to stand at only 101,233 billion VND.

4. Viet Nam's national government’s approval on adjustments to the strategic master plan for major developments in Da Nang

On 18 March, 2020, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc approved the adjustments to the strategic master plan for major developments in Da Nang by 2020, with a vision to 2030, paving a way for Da Nang to bring up a new aesthetically-appealing and modern facelift in the future.

Besides, Da Nang government has asked for approval from the Vietnamese Prime Minister for the adjustments to the strategic master plan for major developments in Da Nang to 2030, with a vision to 2045.

Minister of Construction Pham Hong Ha has recently highly lauded the reasonable adjustments to strategic master plan for major developments in Da Nang to 2030, with a vision to 2045 is considerably appropriate and expected to welcome new wave of domestic and FDI investment to Da Nang in the time ahead.

The strategic plan for shaping the future of Da Nang will be created with a focus on the creation of 3 modern urban areas and one ecological zone, plus 2 so-called ‘economic belts’, namely the northern part boasting high-tech industry and seaport- logistics, and the southern part showing off innovations and high-tech agriculture.

By 2030, Da Nang will find its strategic position in the global supply chain network, reinforcing its position as as a gateway to the East-West Economic Corridor, as well as seek a berth in the ASEAN Smart Cities Network (ASCN) and develop itself into a tourism, service and economic hub in Viet Nam in the future.

5. Work commencing on many key large-scale projects

2020 witnessed construction commence on many key and motivational projects. most prominent amongst them were the Hoa Lien Water Plant, the first stage of the Da Nang Software Park No 2, the APEC Park expansion, a traffic improvement project at the western end of the Tran Thi Ly Bridge.

The Da Nang key leaders attending the groundbreaking ceremony for the APEC Park expansion project

Also remarkably, the Vietnamese Prime Minister has already approved the detailed 1:2,000 zoning planning map for the 300ha large-scale Da Nang University project, which has been suspended for more than 2 decades.

The approval aims to concretise the previous adjustments to master plan of the project, and implement the development strategy of the University of Da Nang to 2025, with a vision to 2035, heading forwards developing this tertiary institution into one of Viet Nam’s three leading training hubs which meet international standards.

6. New bright spot in investment attraction

In 2020, Da Nang recorded some encouraging results from domestic and foreign direct investment (FDI) flows despite the adverse impacts of the global coronavirus crisis

Work getting underway well on roads and a new bridge spanning the Co Co River

As of mid-December, an estimated 284 million US$ worth of FDI had been channeled into Da Nang, up 42.4% against 2019.

With regard to domestic investment segment, Da Nang government issued investment policy decisions for 7 domestic investment projects, totalling 16,663 billion VND (around 720 million US$), outside industrial parks (IPs) in Da Nang.

Also, investment licences went to 15 domestic projects, worth a total of 2,201 billion VND (approximately 95 million US$) inside IPs, and in the Da Nang Hi-Tech Park, 2.6 times higher than the figure reported in the same period last year.

In light of global Covid-19 crisis, Da Nang organised a series of online seminars for investment promotion in a bid to attract FDI into Da Nang’s priority sectors from such foreign countries as Taiwan (China), South Korea, Japan and Europe.

Till date, Da Nang has already attracted over 147,500 billion VND (over 6 billion US$) worth of domestic investment and more than 3.5 billion US$ in FDI.

7. Da Nang winning Viet Nam Smart City Award 2020

In November, Da Nang was honoured with the Viet Nam Smart City Award 2020, and picked up three other prizes in the categories of smart public services, smart digital infrastructure, and the best cities for startups and innovation.

On behalf of the Da Nang authorities and people, municipal People's Committee Vice Chairman Ho Ky Minh (middle) receiving the ‘Viet Nam Smart City Award 2020 at an awards ceremony in Ha Noi in November

The prestigious awards, organised for the first time by the Viet Nam Association for Software and IT Services (VINASA), aimed to promote the building of smart cities across Viet Nam and create a driving force to promote technological applications in parallel with innovations in mechanisms and policies.

To be fully eligible for the Viet Nam Smart City Award 2020, Da Nang met the strict requirements regarding legal corridors, the actual implementation of smart city building schemes, the application of smart tech in urban planning and management, the perfection levels of the e-government, smart apps and utilities for use by citizens and businesses, information safety and security, and public ability to access digital opportunities.

Da Nang has gone through an impressive decade of e-government and smart city building steps. Noticeably, Da Nang was the first city in Viet Nam to launch an e-Government system in 2014, and transferred the system to 16 Vietnamese cities and provinces two years later.

8. Notable achievements in administrative reforms

By late 2020, a combined total of 1,677 online public services at levels 3 and 4 had been put into used, accounting for 95.3% of the city’s total.

A scene of the one-stop shop in the Da Nang Administrative Centre

Over the past decade, 899 out of 392,649 administrative procedures in Da Nang have been simplified. The processing time taken to handle administrative procedures relating to basic public construction is shortened by an average of 20% compared to the mandated time.

9. Production value of agro-forestry-fishery rises by 2.4%

Despite being a very tough year for Da Nang due to the severe impact of the coronavirus pandemic, 2020 saw a 2.4% increase in the production value of agro-forestry-fishery in the city. In particular, the value of the agricultural sector went up by 0.77%, forestry by 3.07% and fishery by 2.94%.

Rice harvest season in Hoa Vang District’s Hoa Chau Commune

During the 2016-2020 period, all 11 communes in Hoa Vang District met standards for new rural areas. Also, Da Nang has already issued support policies for local fishermen in a bid to promote fishery development and improve safety, wellbeing and the longevity of their fishing careers.

10. Positive results from social welfare programmes

2020 marked the 20-year milestone for Da Nang to successful implement the ‘5 No’s, 3 Yes’s’ programme.

The Hoa Phuoc Commune authorities in Hoa Vang District handing over a charity house to a poor resident in March 2020

Over the past 2 decades, Da Nang government has taken actions to achieve the targets of no starving households, no illiterate people, no itinerant beggars, no drug-addicts in the community, and no murders for property in the city.

In addition, thousands of apartments have been built across Da Nang to deal with housing shortage for local residents. Meanwhile, Da Nang government has made every effort to ensure that all local residents have stable jobs and they are given the best possible quality of life.

Also, Da Nang has gained a countrywide reputation for giving remarkable results in the implementation of the ‘City of 4 Safe’ programme which was launched in 2015.

Recent years have seen a significant decrease in the number of traffic accidents, and public order offences which have sparked deep concern amongst the general public, including thieves, fraudulent appropriation of property and commercial frauds, in Da Nang. Besides, food safety and hygiene in the city have been ensured, whilst social welfare programmes have been carried out in a more effective manner.

By DA NANG Newspaper – Translated by A.T, M.D