HCM City scales up smart city development project to all districts

HCM City (VNA) - The Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee has urged all districts to conduct programmes on smart city development, with specific targets, roadmaps and implementation measures suited to the characteristics of individual locality.

In the first phase of its smart city development, the city selected districts 1 and 12 to pilot the project, and there have been some accomplishments after more than two years, Chairman of the committee Nguyen Thanh Phong said.

They include application of cutting-edge technologies in administration, and are a crucial foundation for scaling up the project to the remaining 22 districts, he told a recent meeting.

A council would be set up to study the results of the project in the two districts to ensure effective implementation in other districts, he said.

The 22 districts need to submit their programmes on smart urban development for approval by next month, he said.

“Each district must exert all efforts to push up smart city initiatives to help the administration operate effectively and enhance people’s quality of life.”

Nguyen Van Dung, Chairman of the People’s Committee of District 1, said his district has built a model intelligent operation centre that integrates eight systems: smart security camera system, smart firefighting system, smart urban administration, smart healthcare, smart education, smart tourism, online public services, and information security operations.

It also carried out digital transformation and interconnected information with the city management databases, he said.

For online public services, District 1 has already adopted a non-paper registration process in various sectors such as economy, labour, internal affairs and education, he said.

Online registrations rose by four times last year, he said.

As part of the city’s smart city development project, District 12 has adopted geographic information system (GIS) solutions for urban planning and environmental resource management, Le Truong Hai Hieu, Chairman of its People’s Committee, said.

It helps monitor land usage and detect illegal construction, he said.

The district has improved administrative operations using administrative document management software, which allows the public to monitor administrative procedures in real time, he said.

It has also adopted online public services in various sectors, he added.

Vo Thi Trung Trinh, deputy director of the city Information and Communications Department, said “Districts need to build coordinated data systems and connect their information with the city database.”

Smart city development programmes in districts need to provide convenient public services to individuals and businesses and enhance the quality of public services, she said.

Ho Chi Minh City is the largest city in Vietnam and the economic hub of the southern region. Accounting for 0.6 percent of Vietnam’s total land area and about 9 percent of the country’s population, it is part of the southern key economic zone, which also comprises Dong Nai, Ba Ria - Vung Tau, Binh Duong, Long An, Tay Ninh and Binh Phuoc provinces. In the southern economic hub, over 3,000 projects across all sectors are supported by foreign capital, while the number of registered enterprises has exceeded 100,000.

In 2019, the city attracted 8.3 billion USD worth of foreign investment, with its labour productivity being nearly three times that of the whole country (299.8 million VND per person, an increase of 6.8 percent over 2018).

Meanwhile, the total number of international visitors to the city reached 8.5 million, a year-on-year increase of 14 percent with revenues up by 14.5 percent over 2018

The local gross regional domestic product (GRDP) reached more than 1.34 quadrillion VND, an 8.32 percent increase year-on-year.

Before the outbreak of COVID-19, the city set a target of achieving a growth rate of 8.5 percent for GRDP in 2020, with total private investment accounting for 35 percent of GRDP.

This year, HCM City also aims to have 44,000 new businesses, creating 135,000 new jobs./.