planning projects for the ‘New Rural Areas’ in the buffer zone connecting Mekong Delta region to Ho Chi Minh City. The target of the Program is to reform a whole rural area while retain the original cultural character of the local inhabitants. The Program is an economic-social process in order to create new values of economy, society, culture and environment in the era of industrialization and modernization of Vietnam. Although there are some difficulties in the way that the program should be operated, I believe that it will make a huge contribution in creating a new face for the countryside of Vietnam in the future. On performing my duties in this major project, I found that there is still a huge distant from methodology which lie on researching papers and drawings to the real life, even if they are proposed by foreign experts. Those experts have advanced skills and knowledge, but they lack of the sense of being a local with a full package of history and life style and culture… attached. In the other hand, I’m a local but found myself fumbling for the way to connect everything - urban design with the broader social, economic and environmental urban processes - in an achievable project that works in a long-term prospect. In order to fulfill that distance, I need to earn more professional knowledge and experiences by undertaking further studies in graduate level. Among the list of fields of knowledge that are useful for my future career such as urban management, ecological planning, economic and social issues of urban life, urban heritage conservation…, I’ve identified two most important things. Firstly, it is how to approach the issue of
urban design and development in the angle of urban economic and social element in order to create a living community activities and public spaces. Secondly, it is how to achieve the solutions to make an urban development project achievable - be successfully implemented in the reality, not only a “hanging (pending) project” as we usually sneer at. The Master of Urban Development & Design program in UNSW is very well-structured and meets all my needs: intensive yet practical with a strong focus on studio studies and Asia-Pacific region. More especially, it also offers students field projects based in world’s major cities such as Barcelona, Venice, Hamburg… These features will help correct my mistakes, build up my international perspective as well as enrich my hand-on experiences. The products of urban design project, similar to planting a seed in the soil, cannot be seen in a near future. If a good seed is planted in a good environment by an expertise farmer, it will become a giant useful tree. In this new era, an expertise farmer is required not only to know which is a good seed should be planted in which kind of environment, but also to see in a very far future in advance in order to choose the seed and change the environment so that they can make a perfect match. My career goal is to become that type of expertise urban designer, and your program is the first step to achieve that goal. The courses offered in the program answer directly to my quest of knowledge. I believe it will equip me new tools to better face the challenges in urban design, the career I have just begun.