This was announced by Mayor Nguyen The Thao at the 21^st session of the Hanoi municipal People’s Council on July 15.

Instead, Mr Thao said, Hanoi will be decorated with ornamental flowers, trees and posters. Money collected from businesses to build the welcome gates will be used to deal with pressing social issues and renovate urban areas.

The council adopted three resolutions on the socio-economic situation in the first half of this year, approved a final accounting for the 2009 budget, and assigned new names to 43 streets in Hanoi.

Delegates agreed on five key tasks and new solutions to achieve an economic growth rate of 10 percent this year.