A new museum project in HCM City has been met with skepticism and criticism as there are already too few visitors and too few artifacts for the number of museums the city already has.

The Hanoi Museum

When it was announced that the city is planning on a new HCM City museum project which will cover 15.45ha, citizens were surprised because there was no need for one; there is already an HCM City Museum, and many old museums receive as few as a thousand visitors a day.

Vietnam has 147 museums, 32 of which have been built since 2005, with Hanoi Museum costing VND3trn and QuangNinh Museum VND900bn.

Many people voiced concerns as Hanoi Museum is large, but has few exhibits. The first two floors have not been opened, and the top two floors are sparse.

Nguyen Van Tien, Hanoi Museum's guard, said a good morning was when a single group of 20 people came. "There are more visitors during festivals or special occasions, but otherwise, few people come," he said.

Nguyen Quang Nam, the director of the project management board of National Museum of History said, "There are many expensive museums with nothing to display. That's why we always think of the content while building a museum. The content is important and will decide its success."

Pham Quoc Tuan, a member of Vietnam Association of Architects, said. "I think only few museums, such as the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology and the Vietnamese Women's Museum, succeeded in becoming an attraction, for their architecture and their exhibits. I feel sad that a huge money was spent on a huge museum that no one visits, such as the Hanoi Museum."

Dtinews