The first nine State-owned enterprises and organizations will relocate their facilities from downtown to suburban areas within five years starting August 2023, according to a decision by the Hanoi People's Committee.

Habeco's brewery plant on Hoang Hoa Tham Road, Ba Dinh District, will leave the city center. Photo: The Hanoi Times

According to the decision, the nine facilities include the People and Hanoi Moi newspaper printing plants in Hoan Kiem District, the Hanoi Beer, Liquor and Beverage (Habeco) brewery in Ba Dinh District, the Thang Long Tobacco Company in Thanh Xuan District, and the Gia Lam locomotive factory and Duc Giang Petrol and Oil Company in Long Bien District.

According to the city authorities, the factories and facilities no longer fit in with urban design and development. Their relocation will free up land for the development of public spaces and national infrastructure.

The Hanoi People's Committee assigned the Department of Finance and the Department of Natural Resources and Environment to implement the decision and related tasks.

The municipal committee also sets up a 14-member steering group to take the decision seriously and effectively.

The steering group is responsible for drawing up a plan to help these nine facilities complete their relocation and develop a proper plan to use the vacated land.

Hanoi authorities have sought a solution for years to move the factories out of the city for environmental reasons.

The rapid development of the capital city is also leading to strong population growth, increasing the demand for public spaces and community services.

Therefore, factories need to be relocated to the city's outskirts to avoid polluting the urban environment and provide more land for public services.

The issue was first raised in Hanoi's Master Plan for Urban Planning and Development, released in 2011, three years after the capital completed its administrative boundary adjustment. 

According to the Hanoi Department of Natural Resources and Environment, 204 factories from 12 urban districts will have to move, while five rural districts are waiting to be upgraded to the metropolitan level.

In preparation for the citywide relocation, Hanoi authorities have set aside a total of 447 hectares for the relocated factories to move into.

But it remains difficult to relocate facilities that have been in operation for decades, such as the Habeco brewery on Hoang Hoa Tham Road in Ba Dinh District and the Thang Long Tobacco Company on Nguyen Trai Road in Thanh Xuan District.

According to architect Pham Thanh Tung, director of the office of the Vietnam Association of Architects, the factories are located on prime land, which makes their value relatively high in all respects.

"The city should not turn the land into apartment buildings, which will certainly increase the population and strain the city's infrastructure," he added.

Tran Ngoc Chinh, Chairman of the Vietnam Urban Planning and Development Association, said the city must take strong measures to move factories out of urban areas.

He said that the regulations must clearly state that factories must move once they are allocated land elsewhere and receive financial support.