It is therefore understandable when a project to build the Vietnam National History Museum in Hanoi City costing as much as VND11.27 trillion, or some US$540 million, stirs up public disapproval. The project, as proposed by the Ministry of Construction, should get off the ground late this year for completion in 2016. When completed, the museum, which occupies an area of 10 hectares near Hanoi’s West Lake, will replace the two current museums, namely the History Museum and the Revolution Museum, and these premises will be turned into the Fine Art Museum and the Museum for Ancient Oriental Artifacts, says the news site Vietnamnet.

As covered in local media, many people from all walks of life have disapproved of the project to build the museum, saying it must be put on hold now given all the economic difficulties the country is facing at the moment.

“The public confidence in public investment projects in different sectors has been to some extent shattered, so authorities should be more prudent in executing projects worth hundreds of U.S. dollars each, especially at a time when the country is in dire need of other public facilities in such areas as healthcare and education,” says Sai Gon Tiep Thi.

Citing culture researcher Phan Cam Thuong, the newspaper says the public indignation towards the big-ticket project at this point of time is a natural reaction, since they are taxpayers.

Phan Huy Le, chairman of the Vietnam History Society, ponders in the paper whether the huge sum of trillions of dong will really bring about positive changes to the people’s cultural life, or is merely a waste of money. Citing the case of Hanoi Museum that was built to mark the millennial anniversary of Thang Long-Hanoi as an example, the historian says the museum costing VND2.3 trillion has not been properly utilized as there are few exhibits to fill up its vast space, so competent State agencies should think twice when considering the new project.

Experts in the museum sector agree on the need to have a large-scale museum, but given the current state of the economy, they say the project should be put on a waiting list.

Even Nguyen Quang Nam, director of the museum project management board, asserts in Tuoi Tre that the project implementation should depend on the country’s socio-economic conditions.

Nguyen Dinh Thanh, a culture lecturer at a university in Paris, says on Vietnamnet that “the decision to put forth a museum project worth over VND11 trillion at a time of economic woes in the country and recession in the world is difficult to understand.” He suggests that the museum project be postponed by 20 more years until educational and socio-economic conditions of the country are substantially improved. The project to build the Vietnam National History Museum is a too big and too ambitious plan that many people might think it to be a joke, says the news website.

Readers in their comments sent to newspapers are divided over the necessity of the project, but most of them agree that the costly museum should not be built right now.

“This project goes against the country’s current socio-economic conditions… Now is not the right time for pouring out such a huge sum,” says a reader in Tuoi Tre. The newspaper says all 259 readers submitting comments on the project after the first week show consensus that the project should be delayed, as over VND11.27 trillion is quite a colossal sum at this time,” says another reader.

The reactions on Vietnamnet are more or less the same, with one reader saying “the Hanoi Museum is standing there as proof of haste and waste,” and this museum should be used to replace the new museum project.

In another article authored by a reader on Vietnamnet, the project is referred to as the brain child of weird thinking. “It is sad that such ways of weird thinking still come up over and over again, sending the public into confusion,” says the author, who also suggest “this museum project should have a place on the shelf of the museum.”

Thanh Nien in a commentary titled “poor but lavish” sharply criticizes the lavish mind in creating this costly project.

“A modern clinic like Hospital K in Hanoi’s Tan Trieu with 1,000 inpatient beds costs some VND1 trillion. Doctors dream of such a modern facility, and patients dream so all the more,” so that the people’s livelihood can be improved, says the paper. Making investment into education, healthcare and human resources must be the top priority, rather than the new museum, whose construction must be approved by the people in a far-reaching survey.

Source: SaigonTimes