Int’l conference on digital transformation, smart city development

At the conference, representatives from the northern province of Quang Ninh shared experience in technological adoption and expressed their high determination in building a smart city.

At the opening of the event (Photo: VietnamPlus)

An international conference, themed “Digital transformation towards building a smart city”, took place in Ha Long city, Quang Ninh province on November 20.

The event was within the framework of the Asia Pacific ICT Alliance Awards 2019 co-hosted by the Vietnam Software and IT Services Association (VINASA) and the provincial People’s Committee.

Attracting over 500 delegates from 11 cities and provinces, and 16 countries and economies in Asia-Pacific, the event was part of a long-term strategy between VINASA and Quang Ninh in order to further step up digital transformation, towards building a digital province.

Speaking at the event, standing Vice Chairman of the provincial People's Committee Dang Huy Hau highlighted the significance of the event in the current context when many units and localities nationwide are building smart cities and accelerating digital transformation, in line with orientation and guideline of the Government and the Ministry of Information and Communications.

VINASA Vice Chairman Nguyen Trung Chinh  (Photo: VietnamPlus)

It was also the first time the conference had been held after 7 years of conducting the e-government project and two years of launching smart city model, and now the digital administration building project.

Hau said Quang Ninh attaches importance to promoting sci-tech and information technology application, considers information and communications both an important foundation and resource to propel the rapid, strong and sustainable growth of the province.

Thanks to drastic efforts, Quang Ninh ranked fourth among 63 cities and provinces in the Information and Communications Index for the third consecutive year, and the third among 63 cities and provinces in 2019.

In 2018, Quang Ninh was honoured by the Asian-Oceanian Computing Industry Organization (ASOCIO) with the award for digital administration.

Addressing the conference, VINASA Vice Chairman Nguyen Trung Chinh said with the advent and breakthrough development of new technologies such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality, big data and blockchain, the fourth industrial revolution is leading to a new journey – digital transformation journey.

During that journey, the building and operation of smart and urban cities is extremely necessary on the national scale. They are not only hubs of socio-economic activities, but also innovation, education, sci-tech research, production, trade and global integration, he said.

The conference focused its discussion on digital transformation in smart city development and in key industries.

First session “Digital transformation application in smart city development” with reports on building digital infrastructure for smart urban areas (Photo: VietnamPlus)

Experts will share their perspectives, knowledge and experience on the overall architecture as well as components of sustainable smart cities.

The event aimed to share strategic vision and experience in digital transformation applications towards building smart cities at home and abroad, thereby issuing measures for planning, management and development of sustainable smart cities based on new technologies such as Internet of Things, big data and artificial intelligence.

In 2019, Vietnam announced a strategy for national digital transformation towards a digital economy and digital society. Accordingly, building digital technology platforms is the core to a successful digital transformation. In the Vietnam Digital Transformation Alliance, IT enterprises need to take a lead with focus on investing in infrastructure, technology and building platforms to provide them for enterprises when they carry out digital transformation.

To achieve high rankings in the world and the goal of being in group 50 by 2025 and group 30 by 2030, Vietnam needs to focus on five fundamental factors during its digital transformation process, including institution, infrastructure, cybersecurity, existing digital platforms and human resources training. The application of existing digital platforms is the fastest way for digital transformation in Vietnam.

With the determination of the government, the active participation of information technology enterprises and the people's consensus, it is hoped that in the future, Vietnam will build a digital platform that can connect millions of people, thousands of businesses, sharing information and promoting all economic, cultural and social factors to develop together in a digital environment./.