VietNamNet Bridge - After five years of the administrative boundary expansion, the income of Hanoians increased from $1,697 in 2008 to $2,257 in 2012.

According to a report of the Hanoi Department of Planning and Investment, the capital city maintained high growth rates in the last five years, averaging 9.45 percent annually.

Banking, information and communications, trade and tourism are the key economic sectors with high growth rates. The number of tourists to Hanoi rose 6.3 percent annually. Hanoi contributed 10 percent of GDP, 9 percent of export revenue, 13 percent of industrial production and 23 percent of the total social capital to the country.

Hanoi had a high urbanization rate in this period, with the implementation of 370 projects to build trade centers, supermarkets, luxury offices, hotels and houses, with 520,000 apartments, equivalent to 82 million m2 of floor.

Infrastructure for rural areas also made rapid development. Temporary classrooms have been abandoned; 100% of communes have had electricity; 86 percent of the population has access to safe water.

However, Hanoi still faces many problems after five years of expansion: including unsustainable economic growth, foreign investment attraction beyond its potential, spreading public investment, slow implementation of projects and oversupply in the real estate market.

Tran Cham