IMV, which stands for Institut des Métiers de la Ville (Cooperation Center for Urban Development), was established in March 2001 under an international cooperation agreement between the Hanoi People’s Committee and the Île-de-France region (one of the 26 administrative regions of France, composed mostly of the Paris metropolitan area). Its purpose is capacity building for the city in the areas of urban planning (development, regulatory provisions, project methodology) and management of urban department (control, sub-contracting, quality of utilities, user information, etc.).

IMV’s thrust area is the sharing of experiences among professionals at two levels of authority. IMV provides an interface by holding strategic seminars for decision makers and training sessions for technical department supervisory staff, as well as by funding studies on new issues and pilot projects in Vietnam. Further, IMV fulfils a major knowledge dissemination function by having French books translated and published on urban planning, as well as urban research projects undertaken in Vietnam. IMV’s documentation centre contains over 400 books, scientific papers and studies concerning urban planning in France and Vietnam.

The institute’s work focuses mainly on urban planning, regional planning, public transport (bus, subway, intercity/interprovincial trains), access to water and drainage in suburban areas and protection of architecture heritage.