Expanding Urban Space and Creating Development Momentum

With an urban network distributed over a wide area, Phu Tho province is step-by-step reorganizing its development space toward a multi-center, synchronized, and modern orientation. Clearly defining core urban centers, linking urban development with infrastructure completion, attracting resources, and elevating management quality are opening up new room for growth, creating momentum to drive socio-economic development in the new phase.

Forming a Multi-Center Urban Structure

According to Decision No. 678-QD/UBND dated March 13, 2026, issued by the Provincial People’s Committee, Phu Tho has 60 existing urban areas that continue to be managed during the transition period. This serves as an important foundation for the province to continue reviewing and reorganizing its post-merger urban network, as well as shaping a development structure suitable for the new spatial layout.

The province’s urban appearance is becoming increasingly spacious and modern, creating momentum for socio-economic development.

The entire province currently has an urban population of approximately 1.19 million people, with an urbanization rate reaching 29.15%. This is the result of investing in, upgrading, and expanding urban spaces, while demonstrating the need to continue completing infrastructure and raising urban quality in the coming years. Following the merger, the Provincial People’s Committee approved 16 urban and rural planning projects, including 2 new planning projects and 14 adjusted planning projects. Approximately 86% of the urban population uses clean water; the rate of collection and treatment of municipal solid waste reaches about 95% in urban areas and 75% in rural areas. These figures reflect positive transformations in essential infrastructure investment, contributing to improving living conditions and the physical appearance of urban centers.

Along with technical infrastructure, the province’s social infrastructure has also received investment attention. Existing urban areas currently host 52 parks and flower gardens, meeting the living and recreational demands of residents while contributing to building civilized, friendly urban spaces. In the housing sector, numerous social housing projects are being actively deployed. The urbanization process across the province is step-by-step shifting from horizontal expansion to elevating quality, synchronization, and connectivity.

To build a foundation for new development steps, the province focuses on implementing resolutions and conclusions from the Central Government and concrete tasks tailored to development requirements in the new situation. The primary focus is reviewing and reorganizing the urban networks of the three pre-merger localities; perfecting planning, developing infrastructure, elevating environmental quality, and innovating urban management methods in alignment with a two-tier local government model. This is an important step to ensure the transition process proceeds continuously without disrupting management and urban investment development.

Concentrating Resources on Core Urban Centers

Selecting core urban centers demonstrates an approach aligned with resource conditions and development demands. Instead of spreading investments thinly, the province prioritizes areas with clear advantages in location, infrastructure, population, industry, services, tourism, and connectivity to build growth poles. From these poles, development momentum will spill over into neighboring areas, step-by-step forming a closely interconnected urban network.

New urban areas in Viet Tri ward are receiving investment, meeting housing demands and creating additional development space for the city.

Viet Tri urban area is designated as the political-administrative, cultural, and service center of the province. With its position, role, and existing infrastructure base, Viet Tri continues to be expected to serve as the core connecting development zones, leveraging strengths in culture, tourism, trade, and services. Vinh Yen and Phuc Yen urban areas fulfill roles as industrial, service, science-technology poles and gateways connecting to Hanoi Capital and Noi Bai International Airport. This offers a special advantage in attracting investment, developing high-tech industries, logistics services, trade, and production-support service types. Hoa Binh and Lương Sơn urban areas are oriented toward exploiting advantages in eco-tourism, landscapes, hydropower, and connectivity with the Northwest region. Differing advantages and functions among urban centers will contribute to creating a diverse development structure, limiting unnecessary competition, and enhancing complementary traits between centers.

To realize this orientation in the coming period, the province prioritizes investing in backbone infrastructure, digital infrastructure, and lead connectivity projects. This is considered a prerequisite for expanding urban space, raising connectivity among centers, and creating favorable conditions for citizens and businesses to access services. Alongside this, authorities are accelerating planning formulation, compensation, site clearance, creating clean land funds, shortening project execution timelines, elevating land-use efficiency, and paving the way to attract capable investors.

Expanding urban space is not merely about increasing population scale or construction area; more importantly, it means reorganizing development space scientifically to build linkages between urban centers and functional zones. When planning is executed synchronously, infrastructure invested with focus, and social resources effectively mobilized, urban centers will become vital growth poles for the province.

Hoang Huong