Speaking at the opening ceremony of the Vietnam - Asia Smart City Conference 2024, taking place over 2 days (December 2 - 3, 2024), Mr. Ha Minh Hai - Member of the City Party Committee, Vice Chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee - said: "Vietnam - Asia Smart City Conference 2024" is not only an important event in the series of activities responding to the National Digital Transformation Day 2024, but also a large forum for Hanoi and other localities in Vietnam and internationally to discuss, exchange experiences, share digital transformation solutions and strengthen cooperation in the field of technology, towards a smart, modern, and sustainably developed urban future.
With the overarching theme: "Smart City - Digital Economy - Sustainable Development", this conference is not only associated with three strategic goals but also reflects the main pillars in the strategic vision, "new vision, new global thinking" in the development of the capital Hanoi as well as localities in the region.
Today's event is an opportunity for leaders, experts, and leading digital technology businesses to discuss and build breakthrough solutions in areas such as semiconductors, artificial intelligence, smart transportation, clean energy, and sustainable environment...
The experiences and practical lessons shared at the conference will be an important driving force for Hanoi and localities in the region to seize opportunities, overcome challenges, and realize the goal of building green, smart and sustainably developed cities.
According to Mr. Nguyen Van Khoa - Chairman of VINASA - statistics, by December 2023, the whole country has 902 urban areas with an urbanization rate of about 42.7%. The urbanization rate is on par with Asia. The urban economy contributes about 70% of the country's GDP.
"With that speed of urbanization, the problem is how to find new development drivers in the context of a world that is constantly changing in politics, economics, technology... I think that Digital Economy, Green Economy and New Technology can be the answer" - VINASA Chairman shared.
Smart cities are one of the main development trends of urban areas in the world as well as in the region. As one of the countries leading that trend, Vietnam is having many positive changes in both policy, investment environment as well as research, implementation and practical application in provinces and cities. According to statistics, up to now, 48/63 provinces and cities in Vietnam have implemented smart city projects.
In addition to implementing the Project at the provincial level for urban areas throughout the province, some localities have assigned their affiliated urban areas to deploy smart urban development at the city/town/district level for pilot implementation before expanding it to the entire province.
In terms of policy, in the past few years, the Ministry of Construction, Ministry of Information and Communications, Ministry of Science and Technology, and Ministry of Transport have issued many legal documents and guiding frameworks to promote the implementation of smart cities in provinces, cities, and urban areas nationwide.
Up to now, the Ministry of Construction is completing the final stages to issue the Smart Sustainable City Criteria Set version 1 with 4 areas: Smart urban planning, Smart urban infrastructure management, Smart urban utilities and Smart urban database platform. The smart levels of the city are classified into 4 levels, in which Level 1 includes 16 criteria, Level 2 has 32 criteria, Level 3 has 50 criteria, Level 4 has 60 criteria.
