Hanoi’s cultural industry: From resources to mechanisms for sustainable creative economic development.

Hanoi possesses rare advantages in terms of heritage, traditional craft villages and streets, creative spaces, and a dense network of festivals and events. The city has also placed the cultural industry at the center of its policies, with Resolution 09-NQ/TU in 2022, Resolution 24/2025/NQ-HĐND in 2025, and the goal of increasing its contribution to the city’s GRDP. However, to move beyond mere trends and achieve sustainable growth, Hanoi needs to simultaneously address three key challenges: mechanisms and markets, infrastructure and space, and human resources and outlets for creativity.

From cultural resources to market capacity: Clearly defined mechanisms are needed to encourage private sector involvement.

Hanoi is the cultural center of the country, possessing a rich “soft” resource base: a system of heritage sites, a network of major cultural and artistic festivals and events, and diverse creative spaces. Since being awarded the title “City for Peace” in 1999, the city has both expanded its urban scale and maintained a vast cultural treasure and a diverse creative life.

In terms of policy, Hanoi has demonstrated its priority through major work programs on cultural development and building a refined and civilized Hanoi citizenry; simultaneously, it issued Resolution 09-NQ/TU (2022) on the development of the cultural industry for the period 2021-2025, with orientation to 2030 and a vision to 2045, setting a target that by 2030, cultural industries will contribute 8% of the city’s GRDP. At the public investment level, the city approved a supplementary plan with over 14 trillion VND to restore, preserve, and promote the value of historical and cultural relics. Regarding resources, the investment in culture is expected to account for 2% of the city’s total budget revenue during the 2021-2025 period.

However, the major gap lies in the fact that while the policy is in place, the specific mechanisms for transforming cultural resources into marketable cultural products and services still need to be more clearly defined. Many opinions emphasize the role of the private sector in developing the cultural industry: the State plays a regulatory role, creating a legal framework and a favorable environment; while specific activities require strong participation from the private sector. Therefore, the challenge is not just about calling for participation, but about clearly defining the role of the State, the role of the private sector, what support the State should provide, and what tools should be used for that support.

From the perspective of operating the cultural market, proposals focus on constructive mechanisms such as tax incentives, long-term preferential leases for premises, enhanced copyright protection, and commissioned projects. At the same time, many assessments also point out that the legal system is still out of sync with reality, and there are legal gaps, especially in the context of digital transformation. Without a sufficiently clear “framework” for the market, the cultural industry will struggle to go beyond mere events and will find it difficult to form a value chain capable of reinvesting.

Infrastructure and creative spaces: Synchronization is needed for products to have the “ground” to grow.

In practice, the cultural industry requires infrastructure for production, performance, and distribution. Hanoi has shown some “bright spots” demonstrating its potential for market creation: the Hoan Kiem Lake pedestrian zone hosted nearly 500 domestic and international events in just over three years; Hanoi Book Street welcomed over 3 million readers in five years, generating approximately 40 billion VND in revenue. These examples show that when there is a suitable space and a consistent pace of activity, the public appears, and revenue can be generated.

However, the challenges highlighted still revolve around: inconsistent infrastructure, lack of linkages between stakeholders, difficulties in market access and intellectual property protection, along with a shortage of financial resources and specialized human resources in both the public and private sectors. In particular, many opinions suggest that the city needs a specific mechanism to encourage the operation of creative spaces, viewing the reconstruction of industrial heritage sites after relocation from the inner city into creative spaces as a great opportunity – but only feasible if there are sufficiently clear incentive policies for participating businesses.

In the handicraft and traditional craft village sector, the “infrastructure” requirement is not just about land, but also about planning, experiential chains, and connectivity systems. Hanoi is noted as the locality with the largest network of craft villages in the country, and also the only place where the concept of “craft streets” exists – a “bridge” bringing handicraft products to consumers and tourists. Numerous data points demonstrate the socio-economic scale of craft villages: Hanoi has 1,350 craft villages and villages with crafts, with 318 recognized exemplary craft villages; it is estimated that craft villages create jobs for approximately 1 million workers, with a production value of approximately 1 billion USD and about 200 million USD in export turnover each year; many villages achieve revenue of 10-20 billion VND/year, nearly 70 villages achieve 20-50 billion VND/year, and about 20 villages exceed 50 billion VND/year.

But this very “leverage” also raises an operational question: How to maximize the exploitation of the network of craft villages and craft streets to become the brand positioning axis for the capital’s cultural industry? The suggestions in the content you provided suggest that the direction lies in integration: developing experiential tourism in craft villages, innovating designs to meet tourists’ needs in both form and content, and organizing routes connecting craft streets and craft villages. When the experiential and distribution infrastructure is designed as a system, handicraft products will have the opportunity to transform from a “destination” into a true “creative economic sector”.

Based on that reality, Hanoi has made many efforts to develop cultural infrastructure in a more systematic way. Accordingly, on July 10, 2025, Resolution 24/2025/NQ-HĐND, issued by the Hanoi People’s Council, stipulated the organization and operation of…Cultural Industry CenterThis marks the formation of a new institution, serving as a central space for production, exhibition, market connection, and support for creative activities in the cultural industry. This model is expected to facilitate more stable operation of cultural and creative entities within a market mechanism, instead of relying solely on event-based activities.

Simultaneously, Hanoi is also promoting the connection of existing creative spaces through the official launch of the Hanoi Creative Cultural Space Network and the awarding of certificates to 82 spaces. This represents a shift from fragmented creative spaces to a recognized and interconnected ecosystem, contributing to strengthening the soft infrastructure for the capital’s cultural industry and creating a foundation for the continuous and sustainable development of creative activities.

Human resources and “output” for creativity: Opening the platform to create a creative rhythm.

One of the major “bottlenecks” identified is the shortage of skilled and experienced personnel, as well as the lack of mechanisms to nurture young creative talents. Many opinions emphasize that human resource development must begin with the younger generation, even from a young age, through learning and experience to foster a love of art, creative thinking, and motivation to pursue a career. Involving artists in teaching is mentioned as a suitable direction given the unique characteristics of the cultural and artistic profession.

However, human resources cannot develop without “output” and a predictable professional environment. Discussions at the cultural industry forum emphasized that human resources and identity go hand in hand, but to truly flourish, they need the means and outlets. “Output” here refers to festivals, awards, professional platforms, and performance and distribution systems that provide professionals with space to experiment, accumulate experience, and achieve commercial success. Along with this is the requirement for transparency and fairness in remuneration and professional standards, so that young people can confidently pursue their careers and see a clear path to development.

In the management of the cultural industry, Hanoi is also required to shift from “having activities” to “having strong products and a revolving mechanism.” City leaders have emphasized: For the cultural industry to develop strongly, there must be quality cultural products with viewers and appreciators; activities must have both national identity and modernity; it cannot simply be about performing what is already available, but must research and develop unique products suitable for the times. At the same time, public service units need to identify strong products, propose investment portfolios and mechanisms to overcome obstacles, and organize regular performances to generate revenue and reinvest. This shows that “steady activity” and “repetitive revenue” are conditions for the industry to move away from the form of fragmented experimental projects.

Within that framework, an annual festival is seen as a platform for practice rather than a single event. In the capital city, the Hanoi Creative Design Festival serves as a testing ground for creative resources. Here, ideas are presented to the public, tested in real-world conditions, and placed in a multi-faceted interaction between the state, the private sector, and the creative community.

The scale of the Hanoi Creative Design Festival 2024 clearly demonstrates this role: 110 activities across 12 cultural industry sectors, bringing together nearly 500 creators, designers, architects, artists, experts, and researchers. The festival space becomes a place for dialogue, learning, and collaboration, while also directly revealing bottlenecks in mechanisms, procedures, investment models, and organizational methods. These are issues that can only become apparent when creativity moves beyond ideas and into operation.

More importantly, the festival model demonstrates sustainable outputs for the cultural industry: products are showcased to the public, social feedback is recorded, and new partnerships are formed from practice. It is from this foundation that the Hanoi Creative Design Festival is expected, from 2026 onwards, to not only be a space for creative experimentation, but also to gradually become an open creative platform helping Hanoi accumulate experience, improve its soft infrastructure, and support the transformation of creativity into sustainable value for the cultural industry.

In short, for Hanoi’s cultural industry to take off, the challenge is not simply about adding more events or slogans. What Hanoi needs is a synchronized system of conditions: a sufficiently clear policy framework to encourage private sector participation; strong infrastructure and creative spaces for production, performance, and distribution; and a consistent “output” system – a platform and rhythm of activity – to nurture human resources, products, and generate recurring revenue. When these three pillars are interconnected to form an ecosystem, the capital’s cultural resources will transform into sustainable creative economic power.

Source:

Hanoi Creative City

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Hanoi’s cultural industry: From resources to mechanisms for sustainable creative economic development.

From cultural resources to market capacity: Clearly defined mechanisms are needed to encourage private sector involvement.

Infrastructure and creative spaces: Synchronization is needed for products to have the “ground” to grow.

Human resources and “output” for creativity: Opening the platform to create a creative rhythm.

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