The event was co-organized by the Hanoi People's Committee, the Department of Information and Communications and the Vietnam Software and IT Services Association (VINASA) with the theme of Data Mining - Building a Smart City, Sustainable Development. This is the 7th year the program has been organized.

Vietnam - Asia Smart City Summit 2023 with Opening Session and 9 thematic sessions divided into 3 routes:

First: Government, People and Enterprises - Aiming to share views and experiences in building mechanisms and developing smart cities (SMCUs) to create a smarter, more efficient and convenient living environment for people and businesses, not to build a digital city instead of a real city;

Second: Technology, Data and Connection - Aiming to introduce and discuss digital technologies and applications, helping to create, connect, analyze, process, and exploit digital data;

Third: Cooperation and Development - Towards promoting cooperation and technology development, developing solutions to help solve specific and urgent problems of cities.

The conference was attended by more than 80 speakers, experts, and more than 1,000 delegates, including leaders and managers from 11 economies, ministries and ministerial-level agencies; 15 departments, branches and sectors of 18 provinces and cities across the country, and technology enterprises, application enterprises, experts, research institutes...

In addition to the discussion sessions, the event also included an exhibition with nearly 30 booths, introducing excellent technology services and solutions serving the development of e-commerce in Vietnam and the region.

After 5 years of implementing Decision No. 950/QD-TTg of the Prime Minister on sustainable development of smart cities in Vietnam in the period of 2018 - 2025 and orientation to 2030, Vietnam has 48/63 provinces and cities implementing smart city development projects, more than 40 localities have deployed Smart Operation Centers (IOCs) at the provincial level and nearly 100 IOCs at the district level.

Current urban areas are developing IOC systems and smart city utilities and services, focusing mainly on the fields of traffic (monitoring traffic order and safety), smart healthcare, smart education, and developing warning applications.

Mr. Truong Gia Binh, Chairman of VINASA Founding Council, spoke at the Conference. (Photo: Van Chi)

Speaking at the conference, Mr. Truong Gia Binh, Chairman of the VINASA Founding Council, said: “Industrial enterprises have also made every effort to accompany provinces and cities in orienting, planning and building smart cities. Enterprises such as Viettel and VNPT have cooperated with 45 provinces, building 36 provincial IOCs and 45 district IOCs. Viettel has launched IOCs for more than 30 localities.

FPT is also making efforts to advise cities on incorporating intelligence and artificial intelligence (AI) into urban planning and development. Other technology companies have been innovating and bringing the most advanced and effective solutions such as AI, Internet of Things (IoT), 3D digital maps, etc. to help smarten up the management and operation of departments, sectors, urban areas, and industrial parks across the country, and are aiming at digital data management and exploitation problems.

However, building smart cities in Vietnam faces many challenges. The biggest challenge is the unclear legal framework, which is not favorable for public-private cooperation, especially procedures related to investment, bidding, and leasing of information technology (IT) services. In addition, urban areas have not focused on smart planning and smartening basic and essential infrastructure.

Many experiences in cooperation in exploiting digital data, implementation mechanisms of cities such as Jakarta - Indonesia, Hue, Da Nang, as well as from consulting units such as Viettel, VNPT, FPT... were shared. Many smart platforms and solutions were introduced by domestic and international experts and leaders at the conference such as: Cloud platform, 5G solution, AIoT products, virtual assistant, AI in healthcare, transportation, smart mobility...

From that approach, based on the existing infrastructure as well as the characteristics of each urban area in Vietnam, experts believe that there needs to be a roadmap for smart urbanization and sustainable urban development with high resilience, linking management and governance with building data infrastructure for interconnection and effective exploitation.

According to Deputy Minister Nguyen Huy Dung, developing smart cities means implementing digital transformation within the scope and scale of urban areas, but focusing on solving major urban problems. (Photo: Van Chi)

According to Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Huy Dung, developing smart cities is to carry out digital transformation within the scope and scale of urban areas but focusing on solving major urban problems including traffic, environment, energy, waste treatment, ensuring urban security and order... And to achieve these contents in a systematic way, smart elements must be identified, calculated and included right from the urban and city planning stage.

Deputy Minister Nguyen Huy Dung affirmed: "Developing smart cities is building a method of developing and operating modern and effective urban areas based on the application of innovative and creative technologies, not a set of separate systems and applications of specialized agencies because urban issues are closely related to each other. Localities must ensure close connection with the digital transformation process at the local level, not separate, not overlapping, all aiming at the goal of taking people as the center.

People are both the service objects and the subjects participating through socialized investment forms. Relevant units need to consider urban information infrastructure, digital infrastructure and especially data infrastructure as essential urban infrastructure, the foundation for smartening technical infrastructure and socio-economic infrastructure.

Mr. Tran Sy Thanh, Chairman of Hanoi People's Committee, expects: For Hanoi, the city chooses the approach of "Building a sustainable Smart City", taking practical actions for the immediate common benefit and for the responsibility of bringing the best choice for the future. The "sustainability" characteristic of the city will be demonstrated through "smart" choices, "smart" solutions, "smart" technology.

Many excellent technological solutions serving the development of smart cities in Vietnam and the region were introduced at the Conference. (Photo: Van Chi)

Mr. Tran Sy Thanh said: "With the constant changes in science and technology, especially the applications of digital technology and data mining technology that are increasingly present in all aspects of life, the ability to analyze and exploit data is increasing, we hope that the content of the Conference with the opening session on the topic of Data Mining - Building a smart city, sustainable development will be extremely useful for the city. From there, it will contribute to helping the city choose and take advantage of opportunities to realize the goal of building a green, safe, fast-growing, inclusive and sustainable capital."

The Chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee also hopes that the provinces, cities, managers, experts, and participating businesses will have new perspectives in building smart cities.

On the sidelines of the Vietnam - Asia Smart City Conference 2023, there are also other exciting spaces and activities such as: Exhibition of achievements and solutions for digital transformation, building smart cities of businesses and organizations; Cooperation connection activities, consulting on smart city implementation...

On day 2 of the Conference, the outstanding Smart City development trends in Vietnam will be compiled and announced by the Organizing Committee along with the Announcement and Honoring Ceremony of the Vietnam Smart City Award 2023.