Hanoi wants $95,000 income and a spot among world's happiest capitals by 2065

Vietnam's capital has published the longest-horizon blueprint in its history, betting on a cluster of linked cities, a near-1,000-km metro network and first-world wealth.

Hanoi on June 29 unveiled the first 100-year master plan in its history, betting that the capital can lift average incomes to US$95,000 and build a $1.92 trillion economy by 2065.

Those are first-world numbers for a city whose economy was worth about $63 billion last year, or roughly $7,000 a person.

The blueprint, approved in May, drops the idea of Hanoi as a single sprawling city.

Instead it envisions a "radial cluster," with Hanoi as the core and neighboring provinces such as Bac Ninh, Hung Yen and Thai Nguyen acting as satellite poles that absorb people and industry.

The shift reflects sheer scale. Hanoi's population, about 9 million today, is projected to hit 14 to 15 million by 2035 and 17 to 19 million by 2065, with a hard cap below 20 million after that.

The Red River, for decades treated as the city's back edge, becomes its central spine, lined by a planned landscape boulevard.

The plan also promises to revive Hanoi's heavily polluted inner-city rivers, including the To Lich, a long-running source of public frustration.

At the core of the plan is a metro buildout on a scale Hanoi has never attempted: 18 lines stretching about 979 km, which the city estimates could cost $109.7 billion to $137 billion.

After 25 years of effort, Hanoi runs just two lines covering about 21.5 km, roughly 2% of the proposed network.

Officials now want 500 km built by 2035.

A section of the scale model of Hanoi's 100-year master plan. Photo by Hoang Phong

The blueprint also reaches underground, mapping four layers from surface-level shopping and parking down to groundwater reservoirs and defense facilities below 50 meters, with the deepest ground sealed off as a strategic reserve.

Above the streets, Hanoi says it will study eVTOL air taxis and drone corridors, reserving airspace over 3,000 meters for aviation, telecommunications and defense.

The economic roadmap is staged: GRDP of about $200 billion by 2035, $640 billion by 2045 and $1.92 trillion by 2065, with the digital economy eventually supplying half of output.

By the end, the city wants average life expectancy of 80, a Human Development Index of about 0.95 and a place among the world's 10 happiest capitals, all on a "compact-green" model that guards its green belts.

City planners describe the 2065 targets as a strategic destination meant to put pressure on present-day policy rather than a precise prediction, acknowledging that a 40-year horizon is clouded by shifts in technology, geopolitics and climate.

At the launch, attended by National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man, much of the discussion centered less on the vision than on whether Hanoi can deliver it.

The top legislator told delegates a plan has value only when it is carried out effectively.

The city says it will finalize detailed zoning for more than 40 sub-areas before the end of 2026.