City Overview

a Giang City is located on the country’s northern border with the People’s Republic of China (PRC). It is the capital of a poor province with a large ethnic minority population, surrounded by rich forest biodiversity. It is highly vulnerable to flash flooding and landslides. The inland city is relatively economically isolated and has not fully realized its economic growth potential as a border city to the PRC. The main challenges faced by Ha Giang relate to balancing urban expansion and its role as the administrative, economic, ecotourism and socio-cultural hub for surrounding areas, while managing and reducing impacts on the urban environment and retaining its rich cultural and natural heritage. The first action in the project is to provide technical support to Ha Giang city as it implements the existing GCAPs and then prepare updated, improved green city action plans. Capacity will be built in the three cities through their involvement in these processes.. This will result in a strengthened city planning process that mainstreams green planning/design approaches through national policy and regulatory reform, resilience and the GCAP process into city master plans for spatial and socio-economic development and replicate the approach in other Vietnamese secondary cities.​