Packed cities, empty villages!

Vietnam’s migration dilemma

HANOI: When Vu Thi Linh moved her family from their spacious rural home to a tiny rented room in Hanoi, she hoped her children would be able to get the education she never had.

The Linhs are among hundreds of thousands of people moving to Vietnam’s bulging capital and southern Ho Chi Minh City every year, part of what the World Bank says is one of the fastest rates of urbanisation in Asia.

But as economic growth accelerates, Vietnam’s cities are struggling to cope with the huge numbers of people abandoning the grind of country life, while only the elderly and the young are left in the villages.

Linh moved to Hanoi in June after her two daughters won a place at a university in the capital.

"I didn’t think life in the city was exciting, but because of my children’s future, I’ve had to change my opinion," she told AFP. "They have become more educated and now they don’t want to come back to live in the countryside."

Since decades of war ended in 1975, Vietnam has developed rapidly from an impoverished nation plagued by food shortages to a middle-income country and World Trade Organisation member.

Despite lingering issues in the banking and state-run sector, gross domestic product (GDP) is growing faster than expected this year and analysts say Vietnam is one of the only countries in Southeast Asian with swiftly rising exports.

Some 70 percent of the 90 million-strong population still lives off farming in rural areas, but top party leaders have said they want a "modern and industrialised nation by 2035".