The consequences of rapid development on Hanoi

Only a few years ago Hanoi was an oasis of local culture and history in the globalized sameness that has characterized much of Southeast Asia. Now, in 2012, Hanoi has begun to resemble Singapore, Bangkok or Kuala Lumpur and other cities in the region that tend to have the same shopping malls with the same shops carrying the same products. This development has had two consequences that are of capital interest to the Southeast Asian scholar. First, the rapid commercialization that has followed from industrialization and the doi moi policy that was instituted in 1886 has resulted in inflation of prices of both imported and locally produced goods that make it more difficult for ordinary citizens to survive in the economy and has made it more difficult for food producers to supply the local population. Second, this same development and the accompanying inflation will probably make it difficult for a city such as Hanoi to market itself to foreign tourists, investors and developers in that there is such a sameness in the region that that results in the perception that there is little difference where a person travels, invests or where a company builds its facilities in that the same sorts of retail establishments with the same international shops selling the same products at the same high prices is all that is available to residents. This paper is an evaluation of the consequences of development in Hanoi on ordinary residents of the city and its immediate surrounding area. It is limited to this geographical area because of its uniqueness. It is also an analysis of the impact of this globalized environment of decisions of people considering travel to the city. In order to make the evaluation, the author relies on personal interviews, institutional statistics and secondary sources. These sources will be utilized to support the argument that Vietnam is in danger of losing its individual cultural identity because of the very success of its own economic policies and that the loss of that identity is already resulting in difficulties for the average residents of Hanoi