It took a huge effort and a long time from Da Nang to be widely known as Viet Nam’s most liveable city and to be then voted one of the best cities in Viet Nam to visit and live. The government and people of Da Nang are extremely proud of their city recognised title that has been preserved and protected by each local citizen. Da Nang is developing and beautifying day by day. Da Nang is a modern and vibrant central coastal city, boasting a desirable lifestyle, great geographic location and attractive investment opportunities, an impressive destination in the journey to discover the heritage of Central Viet Nam. The city is truly blessed with incredible natural beauty while it offers its visitors a truly unique culinary experience, making it more inviting to both domestic and foreign tourists. All these are part of the reason Da Nang has been known as the most liveable city in Viet Nam. Da Nang is the fourth largest city in Viet Nam after Ho Chi Minh, Ha Noi and Hai Phong.

Each locality has its own strengths and attractiveness. Da Nang cannot compete with Ha Noi as Ha Noi is the heart of Viet Nam, a capital with a history of over one thousand years and nowadays still beats with its dynamic and lively spirit. In addition, Da Nang cannot compete with Ho Chi Minh City as it is largest city and is known as the country’s economic and financial hub, and it offers tourists a look at modern Vietnamese life. Recognizing its advantages and disadvantages, Da Nang has developed appropriate strategies for its socio-economic development after Quang Nam-Da Nang Province was officially divided into the 2 administrative divisions of Quang Nam Province and Da Nang in 1997, and Da Nang became a centrally governed city and had strong development conditions.

In 2008, Da Nang was the only one locality in the country to organize the International Fireworks Festival (DIFF) with funding from socialization sources. The festival has taken place in the city ten times. DIFF and its ancillary components have brought the social and economic benefits to the city, promoting the development of the city’s infrastructure system, attracting more tourists and inspiring them to extend their stay in the city. Most notably, Da Nang has created its sucessful and unique cultural tourism product through the organisation of DIFF which has distinct characteristics, contributing to developing the city’s brand to help in increasing the status of the city as a tourist destination.

In short, Da Nang has made great efforts to organise DIFF that contributes to branding the city as one of the best places in Viet Nam to live.

The creation of a modern infrastructure in Da Nang with beautiful bridges and wider roads is mainly attributed to building consensus with local residents, and their willingness to support the municipal government to deploy development projects. Over one-third of the city’s total households have demonstrated their willingness to move out of construction sites for infrastructure projects, thereby bringing great facelift to the city, making the city more beautiful and attractive.

Da Nang has increasingly affirmed its position on the world travel map with numerous international prestigious awards and recognitions.

Since the beginning of 2022, Da Nang has continuously been honoured with many international notable awards and recognitions by prestigious tourism magazines and websites in the world. Da Nang was one of two Vietnamese localtions to be included in the 25 best places to visit in Asia for 2022, and took 21st place in Tripadvisor Ranking. TripAdvisor, the world-famous US travel website, announced its highly anticipated, annual community-powered Travellers’ Choice Awards for 2022: the Best of the Best Destinations in May. Da Nang is comfortable and friendly destination, with attractive cuisine. Joining culinary discovery tours is the most effective way to experience culture and life. TripAdvisor also suggests that visitors explore caves on Marble mountains and enjoy street food.

Besides, Da Nang has been named among the 10 best cities in the inaugural ‘Asia’s Best Awards’ from the New York-based Travel + Leisure, the world leading travel magazine. The list released by the American magazine late June, based on votes collected from readers around the world between January and April this year. Da Nang has made it onto the list of the top 10 best cities in Southeast Asia, coming in at 3rd place. In the Asia’s Best Awards 2022, readers voted on a number of categories including their favourite hotels, resorts, restaurants, and bars throughout the Southeast Asian region, with various ‘best of’ lists for Cambodia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Maldives, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Viet Nam.

In its efforts to secure the worth-living city title, Da Nang has paid special attention to improving the quality of life for local residents , ensuring social order and safety, and creating career advancement opportunities for all people.

Over recent years, Da Nang has seen remarkable results from the implementation of the ‘5 No’s, 3 Yes’s’ programme, making it very different from other Vietnamese localities.  The city authorities have continued their efforts to reach 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, they have aimed to ensure that all local residents have their own houses, a stable job and a cultural lifestyle. Besides, an enthusiastic football team has been established while Da Nang has friendly taxi drivers, no-frills restaurants with good food, clean beaches while it offers affordable beach services.

A university village where best bachelors and engineers will be produced will be formed in the city. Da Nang is seeking effective measures to attract leading investors in world in order to make it an attractive destination for both domestic and foreign investors. Importance will be attached to building a centralized hospital with top-notch doctors in order to be on par with a developed city.

Da Nang has gone through an incremental development since1997, and it now becomes a modern and civilized city. As a result, Da Nang has been named the most livable city in Viet Nam. Especially, despite all the difficulties and challenges that the city faced in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Da Nang achieved or even exceeded its socio-economic targets for 2022 due to the efforts and determination of the local government and people. In 2022, the city’s GRDP increased by more than 14% compared to 2021. Da Nang ranked third in terms of gross regional domestic product (GRDP) growth and 17^th in economic scale nationwide in 2022 among the 63 cities and provinces nationwide.

The Da Nang government will build the most effective strategies for the city’s socio-economic development, adopt more forceful measures in an attempt to strive to achieve annual growth target of 6.5-7% which is the maximum feasible growth rate. The focus will be on taking all the necessary steps to achieve the city’s goals in line with this year's theme "The year focuses on unleashing full potential of all available resources, attracting investments, maintaining economic growth and ensuring social welfare". Da Nang will continue its efforts to affirm it as one of best places in Viet Nam to live. The focus will be on improving the city’s business environment and its investment climate, promoting the development of  key economic sectors, boosting digital transformation, promoting smart city development, and implementing new urban embellishment projects.

Reporting by PHU YEN – translating by H.L