On July 17, Ian Gibbons, Consul General of the UK in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) and Le Hoa Binh, director of the municipal Department of Construction for HCMC signed a Memorandum of Understanding for smart city development.
As part of this agreement, the UK Consulate General will work with Transport Department on developing a smart ticket system for the city’s public transport network. Moreover, they will cooperate with Construction Department on developing a Geographic Information System for the city’s water drainage network.
UK will also support HCMC in building a financial center and promoting innovation. HCMC hopes to receive financial support and consultancy from the UK, while the UK government hopes that there will be support for SMEs and startups from the UK to invest in the city.
HCMC is the largest city in Vietnam by population, with an estimated population of more than 10 million. The city is in the midst of the first phase of its smart city plans, which aim to address problems like flooding, traffic congestion, pollution and unsustainable growth, as well as improving connections between the city administration, businesses and citizens. During the first phase from 2017-2020, there is a focus on cloud computing Infrastructure, big data analysis, building a shared data warehouse, construction of redundant data centers and developing an open data.
Databases from various government agencies detailing information on topics including land use, healthcare, residential and civil status and tax registration have already been integrated into the shared data warehouse. The city has launched a pilot data portal which provides free information for people and businesses to use, which will cover areas from Medical treatment facilities and health to transport, climate and Environment in the long term. Additionally, the city authorities announced the development of a Smart Urban Operations Center which will see a VND 30 billion (US 1.29 million) investment. In phase 2, the smart solutions launched during the first would be further expanded and their implementation synchronized. During the post-2025 phase 3 is about the longer-term vision, wherein technology platforms will strengthened to improve processing capacity, storage, level of safety and security.
(Sources: Vietnamnet; Vietnamnews)
