When about 1,000 businesses in a Hanoi market went on strike last week over the news that it will be replaced with a commercial center, the outcry highlighted the conflict inherent in the urban modernization trajectory.
For the past few years, city officials have been pushing to renovate at least 10 of Hanoi’s traditional markets into new commercial centers.
Architectural transformation of old city structures is hailed as a vital step for the capital to modernize on the eve of its 1000th anniversary in 2010.
Under the plan, a traditional market like Nga Tu So is being remodeled into a 21-to 25-floor commercial center with at least one or two basements.
A new commercial center will also replace the site of Mo Market, on Bach Mai Street, by mid-2010.
However, the development of these new modern commercial structures has met with mixed results.
Consumers have remained loyal to traditional, street-based markets where prices of goods are lower, while new buildings struggle to attract small business tenants due to high-rental kiosks and extravagant taxes
Some locals have questioned the billions of dong the government have invested to demolish traditional markets that had been upgraded not too long ago.
Nghia Tan Market, for example, was rebuilt 10 years ago with construction mostly financed by tenants.
The market lacked electricity for the first five years, and since businesses have only been up and running in the past five years, most tenants have not been able to recover their investment.
“Our current market has been operating smoothly, so why tear it down now all of the sudden?” said Ly, one of the kiosk owners at Nghia Tan Market.
“If we don’t contribute to financing this commercial center, then we cannot own a kiosk in it.
Small businesses like us won’t be able to afford the high rental and taxes in the center, but we can’t just increase our prices and drive customers away.”
At the end of January, a similar case occurred in Bien Hoa Town of the southern Dong Nai Province.
The province had planned to spend about US$11-million to replace Tan Hiep Market, considered one of the best markets in the town, with a new commercial center.
Provincial officials saluted the move as “a successful urban development model” while most of Tan Hiep’s 700 small businesses considered it to be a waste of funds and a violation of their commercial rights.
While Hanoi officials still vow to replace traditional markets, some of the newly-established commercial centers already struggle to draw enough customers and tenants.
Four years after a major upgrade, the 30,000-square-meter Hai Boi Market located in Dong Anh District has only been able to entice 60 businesses to operate on site.
Khuong Dinh Market in Thanh Xuan District, refurbished six years ago, has just 40 percent of its kiosks registered.
Source: TN, Agencies
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