Factors affecting the development of public passenger transport services by bus in urban areas in Vietnam: a case study of Hanoi city

INTRODUCTION

1. Urgency of the topic

In recent years, Vietnam's urban areas have developed strongly in terms of scale, quantity and quality. Vietnam's urban system has created a new urban appearance in the direction of civilized and modern urban space, creating conditions for people to have a high quality of life. Vietnam's urban system has developed increasingly strongly, distributed relatively evenly across the country. Urban areas have contributed significantly to bringing our country out of the poverty line to become a lower middle-income country. The urban appearance is gradually improving. The urban infrastructure system has been greatly improved, especially roads, river bridges, water supply, electricity supply and public lighting. Many new urban areas have been built.

However, in Vietnam after the renovation, many problems have emerged in the process of urban development such as: rapid growth, lack of planning, environmental issues, social management in urban areas. On the one hand, poor urban planning and management vision has given rise to many complex problems, threatening sustainable development. On the other hand, many rural areas have "eagerly" become urban areas through administrative decisions without complying with the development laws of the urban economy, etc. Economic growth along with rapid urbanization has led to an explosion in travel demand in urban areas, especially particularly large urban areas. To meet the travel demand, means of transport are constantly developing, which is a real challenge for the urban transport system. The rapid increase in personal vehicles is one of the causes of traffic congestion, environmental pollution and many other problems in urban areas. The Government and the Municipalities have been making efforts to find tools to solve this situation, in which the development of public transport, especially public transport services by bus, is considered an effective and central solution. However, in reality, the public transport system by bus in urban areas of Vietnam has not been operating effectively, and has only met a very small part of the people's travel needs.

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Hanoi is the political - administrative - cultural center of the whole country. In recent years, the urbanization process in Hanoi is taking place very quickly in breadth, this brings many development opportunities but also brings with it many problems such as the

Transport infrastructure has not kept up with the city's growth rate, traffic congestion and environmental pollution are becoming increasingly complex. To solve the city's rapid growth, along with limiting personal vehicles, the development and improvement of the efficiency of public transport, especially the public transport system by bus, is identified by the city government as an important and central task in the city's development strategy. This policy needs to continue to be consistently implemented with appropriate priorities for each stage. A case study of bus services in Hanoi, a typical urban area of Vietnam, including assessing the current development status, identifying factors affecting the development and the direction, viewpoints and development goals of the city government will help provide highly general knowledge on the issue of developing public passenger transport services by bus, thereby helping managers plan strategies and build solutions to develop bus services suitable to the characteristics of each urban area in Vietnam. Therefore, the researcher chose the topic " Factors affecting the development of public passenger transport services by bus in urban areas in Vietnam - Case study of Hanoi city " as his doctoral thesis.

2. Objectives and tasks of the thesis

The research objective of the thesis is to analyze and evaluate the factors affecting the development of public transport services by bus from the current status of the development of public transport services by bus in Hanoi city, thereby determining the position, role and impact of each party in the 3-party relationship of the State - Enterprises - People, then giving some recommendations for the development of public transport services by bus in urban areas of Vietnam.

To achieve the above objectives, the topic will focus on solving the following specific tasks:

- Reveal theoretical issues on the development of public transport services by bus and factors affecting the development of public transport services by bus in urban areas;

- Analysis of the current status of public transport service development by bus in Hanoi.

- Identify factors and evaluate the importance of factors affecting the development of public transport services by bus in Hanoi. The factors are divided into three groups based on the criteria of the parties involved in the development of public transport services by bus.

including: (1) State management; (2) Enterprise capacity; and (3) People's awareness

- From the research results of the public transport system by bus in Hanoi, propose some solutions to develop public transport services by bus in urban areas of Vietnam in general and Hanoi in particular in the coming time.

3. Research object and scope

3.1. Research subjects

The research object of the thesis is the factors affecting the development of public transport services by bus in urban areas (research in Hanoi City).

3.2. Scope of research

- Content: Factors affecting the development of passenger transport services by bus in Hanoi.

- About space - location: Research in Hanoi City

- Regarding time: Assess the current situation in the period 2016-2020; Propose solutions for the period

period 2020 - 2025 and vision 2030.

4. Research methods

The thesis is conducted with dialectical materialism and historical materialism methodology. At the same time, the following specific research methods are used:

- Secondary document analysis method: Conducted by collecting and analyzing research works on passenger transport services by bus and factors affecting the development of passenger transport services by bus, evaluating the value that can be inherited, the backwardness that needs to be eliminated, the negative value that needs to be criticized, and at the same time discovering gaps that need to be filled or researched and developed. Secondary documents are very rich and diverse, from scientific topics, theses, monographs, references, articles... so the selection and classification before analysis is very important, associated with the evaluation of the theoretical framework that each author uses, the research context, the school pursued, the political or economic logic of each study.

- Statistical data processing method: Based on statistical data sources of professional statistical agencies, administrative reports, social reports of previous studies, the research team will analyze and evaluate the achievements and limitations of the study.

The mechanism of data and information is compared with primary data obtained from the results of independent research of the topic. On that basis, objective scientific comments and conclusions are drawn to serve the construction of synthesis reports and recommendation reports.

- Sociological investigation method: Conducted by: (1) survey sampling;

(2) Designing the questionnaire, it is necessary to pay attention to the types of questions (multiple choice questions, weighted answers, open questions, structural analysis questions; (3) Processing the survey results: based on mathematical statistics on the computer (using popular programs such as: Excel, Stata, SPSS - Statistic Package for Social Studies).

- In-depth interview method: This method is applied to synthesize in-depth opinions of experts on issues, contents, and research results of the topic. In particular, this method is applied to consult and determine results related to proposing and recommending policies for developing passenger transport services by bus to meet the development requirements of urban areas - case study of Hanoi Capital

- Modeling method: To achieve the research objectives, it is necessary to apply the modeling method, including both aspects: passenger transport service development model, passenger transport service development by bus; and factors affecting the development of passenger transport service by bus.

5. New contributions of the thesis

In theory

- Systematize and clarify theoretical issues on the development of public transport services by bus and factors affecting the development of public transport services by bus in urban areas;

- Propose and build a model to measure the impact of factors on the development of public transport services by bus in urban areas;

In practice

- From the current situation of developing public transport services by bus in Hanoi City, the thesis identifies the strengths, weaknesses, and "gaps" in the development of public transport services by bus in Hanoi City. The thesis has measured the level of influence of three groups of factors belonging to the State/Government

local; passenger and customer transport organizations, to develop urban passenger transport services; thereby, quantifying the impact relationship of factors affecting the development of the passenger transport service system by bus in Hanoi City.

- The research results will be the basis for urban authorities in Vietnam to refer to and develop policies to improve and develop the passenger transport service system by bus in the management area in the coming time.

6. Structure of the thesis

The content of the thesis includes 5 chapters:

Chapter 1: Overview of research situation.

Chapter 2: Theoretical basis of factors affecting the development of passenger transport services by bus in urban areas

Chapter 3: Research Methods

Chapter 4: Current status and factors affecting the development of passenger transport services by bus in Hanoi City.

Chapter 5: Development of public passenger transport services by bus in urban areas in Vietnam in the period 2020-2025 and vision 2030 - Through a case study of Hanoi city.

Chapter 1: OVERVIEW OF RESEARCH SITUATION

1.1 Public services and urban passenger transport services.

1.1.1 Public services

Talking about public services, there have been many different studies in the world on this issue, such as: Urban Economic analysis (WZ Hirsch - 1973), The distribution of public services: The preliminary model (Bryan D.Jones & Clifford Kaufman - 1974), Urban sprawl and the cost of public services ( John I Carruthers & Gudmundur F Ulfarsson - 2003) , Public services delivery (World Bank - 2003) , but they all agree on the definition of "Public services", according to which Public services are services performed or authorized by the government and distributed public goods with 1 or 2 of the following characteristics: non-excludable and non-rival.

Domestic studies show a different perspective on the definition of public services when focusing on the provider as well as the beneficiaries and the special social benefits that this type of service brings.

First is the view of Nguyen Ngoc Hien (2002), he believes that the concept of public services includes many different types of services, but they have two things in common: first, these services are all aimed at serving the common and essential interests of the whole society. Second, in one way or another, the State must always play the role of the subject, responsible for ensuring the process of providing these services to the whole society. According to Le Chi Mai (2003), the state apparatus performs two functions: the governance function and the service function, and public services are activities that demonstrate the service function for society, organizations and citizens. The implementation of the governance function comes from the requirements of the government apparatus itself, while the implementation of the service function comes from the needs of society, organizations and individuals in society, as soon as this need can arise from the requirements of the management function. In general, the above concepts all assume that public services are part of the state management of public agencies. Although economic and private organizations can perform them, the highest responsibility to the whole society still belongs to state agencies.

In the book "State management of public service provision" by Do Thi Hai Ha (2007), public service is defined as first of all a type of service but it has additional public characteristics, shown in the following points: undertaken by public authorities (directly or through authorization, bidding), creating public goods to serve

all citizens, operating according to public institutions and public ethics, fulfilling public duties and, above all, bringing benefits to the whole society

There are some opinions that public services are broadly understood as all public service and public administrative activities. However, if we consider them in this way, we will ignore some types of public services in the classification, not separate the functions of the state management apparatus, leading to the inability to identify factors affecting quality in order to improve activities in accordance with the specific requirements of each type of public service (Le Chi Mai, 2003).

According to the classification by the provider, we have 3 types of public services as follows (Le Chi Mai, 2003): Public services directly provided by state agencies, including public service activities, public administration, basic public services; Public services provided by private and non-governmental organizations under the authorization and supervision of the state, including services that the state is responsible for providing, but not directly performing; Public services jointly implemented by the state and non-governmental organizations, the private sector (Forms of public-private partnership PPP).

Based on the concept of the WB and the definition of public services as services with public characteristics (Do Thi Hai Ha, 2006), we have a classification based on the nature and effects of the services provided, specifically including the following types: Special public services, the type of service undertaken by the State apparatus, implemented through a team of cadres and civil servants to ensure the State's governance function over society; Public administrative services, including activities of providing public goods directly to organizations and citizens to ensure the operation of the whole society; Public career services, the State is responsible for providing public goods (in the form of public benefits) such as: Education, health care, insurance, social security... to the people according to the fee collection principle, which can be undertaken directly by the State or through socialization, authorization to non-governmental organizations, the private sector; Public services, including fee-based but non-profit services to meet the urgent needs of the people, are performed by establishments at the request of state executive agencies.

Studies differ in determining the roles of parties in providing finance and organizing the provision of public services. Based on the synthesized studies, it can be determined that bus service is a type of public service, belonging to the group of public services with the goal of meeting people's travel needs, under the management and regulation of the State, provided by the State or a third party. Practice shows that in Hanoi city, bus service is being provided in the form of

State subsidies and allows qualified enterprises to bid to participate in supply under State inspection and supervision.

1.1.2 Urban and urban passenger transport services

Currently, Vietnam's urban areas are in a period of strong development, expansion and modernization, many development planning policies have been introduced to change the face of urban road traffic in a more positive direction. At the same time, in Vietnam, many practical research projects have been taking place and bringing great efficiency to the face of traffic in general as well as public passenger transport in particular. Some research projects on urban development and urban public passenger transport by some notable authors include:

In Vietnam, urban areas are defined by the State as cities, towns, and townships with a population of 4,000 or more, of which over 65% are employed in the non-agricultural sector... (Decree No. 72/2001/NDCP of the Prime Minister). Currently, that concept has been supplemented by managers with another standard: urban technical infrastructure. Urban technical infrastructure can be complete and synchronous or incomplete and synchronous, but must have a general plan for the future. From another perspective, according to the Ministry of Construction in Joint Circular No. 2/TTLT-BXD-TCCBCP, based on the socio-economic management perspective, urban areas are places where people concentrate with high density, mainly non-agricultural workers, with appropriate infrastructure, are general centers or specialized centers that play a role in promoting the socio-economic development of the whole country, of a territory, a province, a district or a region in a province or in a district. In the study of Nguyen Huu Doan (2009), from a sociological perspective, urban areas are a form of social existence in a specific spatial scope and a form of human residence. “The existence of urban areas is in itself different from the simple matter of building many independent houses, here the synthesis, the most general thing is not the sum of the constituent parts. It is a separate living body in its own way”, the author said. According to Pham Ngoc Con's research (1999), one of the fundamental issues of urban development is determining the territorial scope, the number of urban areas and the coordination mechanism between urban areas. In reality, the urban area space is determined on the basis of the influence of the central urban area on satellite urban areas. The regional boundary is relative and historical, depending on the influence of the central urban area and the management level and development level of the productive forces of the satellite urban areas.

According to Arthur o'Sullivan's (2003) study, looking at the macro level