In line with Hanoi's 17th  Party Congress which identified the role of intellectual resources and culture, with its advantages, Hanoi should increase the contribution of the cultural industry in particular and creativity in general to its GRDP, according to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Chi My.

A street art festival at the Hoan Kiem lake area. Photo: Cong Hung

Intellect and culture are considered the fulcrum and the main resource to develop strategies for development and innovation of the capital.

Regarding the vision and strategic direction for Hanoi's development in the coming time, former Secretary of the Ha Dong district Party Committee Vu Oanh told Kinh te & Do thi that the vision of Hanoi's 17th Party Congress has been clearly defined in its Resolution.

Hanoi has been proven a city of culture as it was honored by UNESCO as a “City for Peace” in 1999. In October 2019, Hanoi officially joined the UNESCO Creative Cities Network.

The fact that UNESCO recognized Hanoi as a creative city implicitly suggests that Hanoi should achieve two objectives: to promote intellectual resources and culture.

In human resources, intellectual resources are extremely important because all other resources are gradually depleted, but intellectual resources are plentiful. Hanoi is the convergence of elites, with the country's most abundant human intellectual resources, so there will definitely be room for the cultural industry, Mr. Oanh said.

“UNESCO has recommended that Hanoi should take culture as a key factor and consider it the starting point, a center, and a driving force,” Mr. Oanh said.

Sharing the same view, Mr. My said that as General Secretary and President Nguyen Phu Trong emphasized, the Hanoi Party Committee needs to be more deeply and fully aware of the capital's position, role and responsibility for the whole country.

To do this, Hanoi needs to create a mechanism for local businesses to be involved in the creative industry.

The new cultural industry only contributes about 3.7% of Hanoi's GRDP, but the room to develop this industry is still huge with the great resources of the craft village, culinary culture; art designs and performances; music, movie production and media.