iGuide Stories

What is planning? Who has planning authority?

Planning is the process of planning and organizing the rational use of resources to meet the needs of economic and social development and environmental protection. Planning can be applied in many areas such as urban, agricultural, industrial and transport. Planning authority usually belongs to state agencies with management and coordination functions, from central to local levels. This article will explain in detail the concept of planning and determine who has the authority to implement planning in the current context.

1. What is planning?

Pursuant to Article 3 of the 2017 Law on Planning, it is stipulated as follows:

“1. Planning is the arrangement and spatial distribution of socio-economic, defense and security activities associated with infrastructure development, resource use and environmental protection in a defined territory to effectively use the country's resources to serve the goal of sustainable development for a defined period”.

According to the above regulations, planning is a process of arranging and distributing economic, social, defense and security activities in a certain territory. Planning aims to effectively use the country's resources, serving the goal of sustainable development for a certain period.

2. In 2024, there are the following types of planning:

- National master plan is a national-level plan, strategic in nature towards zoning and regional linkage of the territory.

- National marine spatial planning is a national-level planning, concretizing the national master plan on functional zoning and arranging and reasonably distributing the space of sectors and fields on coastal areas, islands, archipelagos, sea areas, and airspace under the sovereignty, sovereign rights, and national jurisdiction of Vietnam.

- National land use planning is a national-level planning, specifying the national master plan on land allocation and zoning for sectors, fields and localities based on land potential.

- National sector planning is national-level planning, specifying the national master plan by sector on the basis of connecting sectors and regions related to infrastructure, resource use, environmental protection and biodiversity conservation.

- Regional planning is the planning that concretizes the national master plan at the regional level on the space of socio-economic activities, national defense, security, urban systems and rural population distribution, inter-provincial construction, infrastructure, river basin water resources, resource use and environmental protection on the basis of connecting provinces.

- Provincial planning is the planning that specifies the national master plan and regional planning at the provincial level on the space of socio-economic activities, national defense, security, urban systems and rural population distribution, infrastructure, land distribution, resource use and environmental protection on the basis of connecting national planning, regional planning, urban planning and rural planning.