The present work was undertaken as part of two cooperation programmes between French and Vietnamese local governments: one involving the Ile-de-France Region and Hanoi People's Committee, the other the Rhone-Alpes Region and Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee. It was published with financial support from the Cooperation and Cultural Action Office (SCAC) of the French Embassy in Vietnam. Gathered here are the main results obtained by the Franco-Vietnamese research teams involved in the Urban Research Programme for Development (PRUD) funded by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. As the outcome of joint concertation, it illustrates the coherence between the various French cooperation programmes in Vietnam.

The research presented here attempts to define the issues at stake in urban development in Vietnam under the economic and demographic push induced by the transition from a centralized planned economy to a globalized market economy, and by strong urban population growth. Processes at work such as international integration and fast-growing metropolisation, speeded up economic development, devolution/decentralization of urban management authorities, modernization of housing patterns, poorly controlled peri-urban urbanization, mutations in the management of urban services, etc., all require strengthening of skills for urban project management and local government.

To respond to this need, IMV (Cooperation Centre for Urban Development) was created by Hanoi People's Committee and the Ile-de-France Region in 2001. PADDI (Ho Chi Minh City Urban Development Management Support Centre) was founded in 2004 by Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee and Rhone-Alpes Regional Council. Both organizations are jointly headed in situ by representatives from each collectivity and are responsible for developing programmes in such areas as continuing education aimed at government cadres specialized in urban management, consultancy and technical expertise, investment in pilot operations and pilot infrastructures projects, assistance to consultancy firms and BPW companies, and for promoting Vietnamese and French research in the field of urbanism.