Top 10 events that shaped Hanoi in 2017

The capital city has selected 10 of its outstanding events last year as follows:

1. Reviewing the five-year implementation of the 11th-tenure Politburo’s Resolution 11-NQ/TW on plans and tasks for developing the capital city between 2011 and 2020

The Politburo recognised Hanoi’s efforts and attainments in the resolution’s implementation. While local economic growth was 1.5 times faster than the national average, per capita gross regional domestic product in 2016 was 1.7 times higher than in 2011.

2. Actively implementing the Politburo’s Resolution 30 and the Resolution of the sixth meeting of the 12th-tenure Party Central Committee on apparatus organisation, personnel downsizing and restructuring of officials and public employees

3. Achieving all 20 socio-economic targets for 2017, seven of which were surpassed

Hanoi recorded gross domestic product growth of 7.3% – a seven-year high, and export revenue of US$11.8 billion, up 10.3% from 2016. It collected VND208 trillion (US$9.17 billion) for the state budget, rising by 1.6% from the targeted revenue and 16% from the previous year.

4. Tourism develops strongly, turning Hanoi into the world’s top 10 cities with fastest tourism growth

The capital city welcomed about 23.83 million tourists, including 4.95 million foreigners, in 2017. The tourist numbers respectively increased by 9% and 23%. Local tourism revenue was estimated at VND70.96 trillion (over US$3.1 billion), up 15% year on year.

Some prestigious websites like Business Insider, Discovery, CNN and TripAdvisor gave Hanoi third place among the 20 top destinations and listed the capital of Vietnam among the world’s top 10 cities with fastest tourism growth and most attractive destinations.

5. Breakthroughs in administrative reforms, investment climate improvement, and start-up ecosystem development

Hanoi climbed six places in the Public Administration Reform Index (PAR Index) to third nationwide. Its Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI) rose by 10 places to 14th position among the 63 provinces and cities of Vietnam.

While carrying out solutions to support start-ups, Hanoi remained an attractive investment destination, with more than U$S3.4 billion in FDI capital poured into the city in 2017.

6. Leading in new-style rural area building and poverty elimination

Thirty communes in Hanoi were recognised as new-style rural areas in 2017, raising the total to 285, or 73.8% of the city’s 386 communes. The city now has four new-style rural districts (Dan Phuong, Dong Anh, Thanh Tri, Hoai Duc) after two districts gained the title last year.

The local household poverty rate also fell 0.68% from the previous year to 1.69% according to the city’s poverty line.

7. Support for house construction and repair for revolutionary contributors

The city provided VND955 billion (US$42.1 million) for house building and repair for 8,211 revolutionary contributors’ families.

8. Education-training and sports-physical training received more attention 

Hanoi had 108 new national-standard schools recognised, raising the number of public schools meeting national standards to 1,313. It also led in national competitions for excellent students with 146 prizes, including 11 first-place prizes. At regional and international Olympiads, local students won 138 medals, including 39 gold medals.

Hanoi athletes pocketed 2,063 medals last year, 453 of which were obtained in international competition.

9. Celebrating the 45th anniversary of the “Hanoi – Dien Bien Phu in the air” victory (December 1972)

10. Publishing the encyclopedia of Hanoi’s expansion period

The 14-volume encyclopedia covers multiple sectors of the city’s expanded region, which consisted former Ha Tay province, former Me Linh district of Vinh Phuc province and four former communes of Luong Son district, Hoa Binh province.