Hanoi (VNA) - The Vietnam Smart City Award 2020 was officially launched online by the Vietnam Software and IT Services Association (VINASA) on September 7, aiming to push for sustainable development of smart cities across the nation.

Vietnam, with 833 cities of all kinds, is accelerating the construction and development of smart cities, a new trend in the world and deployed in many countries. On August 1, 2018, the Prime Minister issued Decision No. 950/QD-TTg approving a sustainable smart city development plan until 2025, with a view toward 2030. Under the plan, the country will have six smart cities in six economic regions.

The decision has created a wave of strong changes in making planning, building and mapping out development orientations for cities.

According to the Ministry of Construction, the development of smart cities has received attention from ministries, international organisations and people. By the end of June, 38 out of all 63 localities were building projects for smart city development under the Prime Minister’s Decision No.950/QD-TTg.

On May 31, 2019, the Ministry of Information and Communications issued Decision No. 829/QD-BTTT on ICT reference framework for smart city development. On September 13, 2019, the ministry announced the Vietnam Smart City Index by 2025 (Version 1.0). In November 2019, it instructed the People's Committees of provinces to pilot smart city services to avoid wasteful investment.

In that context, the Vietnam Smart City Award 2020, organised for the first time by VINASA, is hoped to encourage organisations and developers that contributed to the development of smart cities in Vietnam.

The Vietnam Smart City Award, which will be organised annually, is expected to create a driving force to promote technological innovations in parallel with innovations in mechanisms and policies.

According to the organising board, the award will be given to four groups including six kinds of urban areas, smart real estate projects and smart buildings, smart industrial park (IP) projects and technology solutions for smart cities, property projects and IPs. Each group would have specific evaluation criteria.

Group 1 will encourage the building of a legal corridor, planning, architecture, technical infrastructure, human resources and public services.

Group 2 aims to promote the building of the living environment, multi-utility and a civilised community for residents.

Group 3 encourages the creation of a complete business investment attractive environment for Vietnamese and FDI enterprises.

Group 4 will promote highly effective technology innovations in all city, urban, real estate and industrial real estate projects.

At the event, VINASA Chairman Truong Gia Binh laid stress on the significance of smart city development, holding it is billed as one of the best tools to serve both people and businesses.

The award is expected to create motivation for technology and policy initiatives, helping cities become valuable urban areas with sharp competitive edge, he said, adding smart cities are an important launching pad for the nation’s socio-economic development.

“Smart city is one of the best ways to serve people and businesses. They are not only urban areas with 'residence environment', but also a city of frequent interactions among people - businesses - government. Thereby, together, we can create greener, more modern, safe, convenient and better cities,” Binh said.

Entries should be sent to the organising board until October 10, competing in four categories of Vietnamese urban areas; smart realty projects and buildings; industrial real estate projects, and technology solutions to smart city, property projects and industrial parks.

The final results will be announced on November 17 when the Vietnam Smart City Summit 2020 is organised./.