Hanoi (VNA) – The ASOCIO Smart City Summit 2018, themed “CreatingSmarter City and Securer City by Digital Solutions,” kicked off in Hanoi onSeptember 18.

The two-day event, jointly held by the Hanoi People’sCommittee, the Asian-Oceanian Computing Industry Organisation (ASOCIO) and theVietnam Software and IT Services (Vinasa), brings together over 600 localdelegates who are leaders of central-level offices, Hanoi, and other localitieskeen on building smart cities, associations, organisations and IT-relatedenterprises, together with nearly 70 foreign delegates from 20 nations andeconomies around the world.

Delegates shared views on issues related to smart urbanbuilding and discussed measures to speed up the process in Vietnam and othercountries via the application of new technologies.

Many stressed the cooperation in smart city building and theimportance of paying attention to sustainable development goals related tohuman and the environment.

They are expected to take part in six seminars on digitalgovernment and strategies to build smart cities, and smarter cities with lesscash transactions; along with sections on infrastructure, platform – principlesfor smart city, data driven city – data analysis & urban planning and smartindustries.

Vietnam is said to be a nation with the fastest urbanisationrate in the region and the world. According to a report by the Ministry ofConstruction, as of late 2017, Vietnam had 813 urban areas, with theurbanisation rate of 37.5 percent.

Its capital, Hanoi, is considered as a “super urban area” interms of both area and The rapid urbanisation and population increase haveresulted in various problems relating to planning, traffic jam, security,health care, education, energy, housing development and pollution.

Given this, building a sustainable and smart city thatensures convenience, safety and hospitality for local residents is urgent forthe city.

Speaking at the event, Chairman of the municipal People’sCommittee Nguyen Duc Chung said that Hanoi wants to build a smart city which isconvenient, safe and friendly to locals, using main technologies of the fourthIndustrial Revolution.

To date, the city has issued various plans with the prioritygiven to building a smart monitoring centre, a smart transport system and asmart tourism system.

In early August 2018, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phucapproved a project to develop sustainable and smart cities.

With the goal of developing sustainable and smart cities,Vietnam hopes to boost green growth and sustainable development, bringing intofull play its potential and advantages, and increase the efficiency of the useof its resources.

The country also wants to improve locals’ living standards,increase the economy’s competitiveness and step up international integration.

Until 2020, the project will work to build a legal basis forsustainable and smart city development, issue policies and mechanisms appliedto the regions subject to pilot implementation, build and pilot the applicationof the ICT framework on smart city development, develop the GIS-based urbanspace data infrastructure, and build a national city database.

By 2025, the first phase of the pilot implementation ofsmart city development will be carried out, focusing on building and finalisinglegal corridors and regulations, applying the ICT framework to smart citydevelopment in Vietnam, announcing national standards prioritised for buildingsmart cities and developing the urban space data infrastructure.

The first-phase pilot is expected to be completed by 2030.Hanoi, Da Nang city, Ho Chi Minh City and Can Tho city will be chosen to be thecore of smart city networks in the northern, central, southern and Mekong Deltaregions, respectively.-VNA