Vietnamese – Korean Seminar on Smart Cities

Minister Pham Hong Ha speak to open the seminar.

Opening the seminar, Minister Pham Hong Ha highly appreciated the ideas and efforts of parties in coordinating to organize the important and meaningful seminar for both countries. According to Minister Pham Hong Ha, revolutions on science – technology and management have been making a strong impact on the urban areas toward smart cities development.

Minister Pham Hong Ha said “ In recent years, Vietnamese Government has directed and implemented many solutions for sustainable and effective development, including the development of information technology and the infrastructure system. A number of major cities in Vietnam have been carrying out research and development projects for the development of smart cities such as cities: Da Nang, Binh Duong, Ho Chi Minh City, Bac Ninh, Quang Ninh. According to the task assigned by the Government, the Ministry of Construction is actively coordinating with the Ministry of Information and Communication and ministries, branches, locaties to study and develop the scheme for the smart cities development, clarifying the responsibilities of the management agencies, authorities and other stakeholders in the development of smart cities, ensuring consistency and efficient use of resources.

Speaking at the seminar, Minister of MOLIT Kim Huyn Mee said that, the South of Korea has been speeding up the process of urban development towards green and sustainable development and achieved many important and pratical results. Many applications of smart cities development such as smart cities planning, smart transportation, smart residential management, smart environment management, have been widely implemented. The South of Korea was also the first country in the world to enact a separate Law on smart cities.

Minister Pham Hong Ha highly appreciated management experience and practical lessons on smart cities development in the South of Korea and considered that these experiences were useful for development of smart cities in Vietnam.

This is also an important part of the cooperation program between the Vietnamese MoC and the South of Korean MLIT.
 

Delegates take the photo at the seminar.

Speeches and comments at the seminar focused on 3 basic issues: the master plan for the construction of smart cities, smart cities management and supply facilities in those. Most of opinions emphasized the importance of having a system of solutions to develop smart cities including information technology applications to adapt with challenges of modern urbanization towards green and sustainable growth.

The comments of experts and managers all agreed that the development of smart cities in Vietnam to be in line with the master plan of the urban system and the National Urban Development Program. Urbanization has played a vital role in the socio – economic development of the country and also faced the number of difficulties and challenges including, inefficient quality of growth, the lack of uniformity in the urban infrastructure system, limitation in the capacity to cope and respond to climate change, inefficient in the capacity of urban management. As a rusult, smart cities investment and development in Vietnam should seriously consider these shortcomings and challenges.

Written by: Ninh Hoang Hanh
Translated by: Mai Anh