The 16th World Technopolis Association (WTA) Mayors’ Forum took place in the southern province of Binh Duong on October 12, attracting the participation of WTA President Her Tae-jeong and mayors of 30 cities over the world.

An overview of 16th World Technopolis Association (WTA) Mayors’ Forum

The event, part of the 2018 WTA Summit, offered a chance for participants to share policies and strategies on science and technology as well as industrial and urban development, and seek solutions to several matters facing the cities.

Tran Thanh Liem, Chairman of the People’s Committee of Binh Duong, said that with rapid economic development, Vietnam in general and Binh Duong in particular are facing several challenges, including social infrastructure failing to meet requirements, limited social welfare, the lack of schools, medical health equipment, and environment-related problems.

He expressed his hope that participating mayors and speakers would discuss, contribute their ideas to and share experience in attracting resources to develop and implement state management to bring a more ideal life to people.

Emil Boc, Mayor of Romania’s Cluj-Napoca city, shared that to avoid corruption, the city’s administration is using encrypted digital signatures. In addition, people can text messages and send emails to the e-government unit directly, so that their problems are solved more quickly.

Cluj-Napoca city has also stepped up dissemination work to encourage locals to use public vehicles instead of personal ones, he added.

Meanwhile, Francisco Cuenca, Mayor of Spain’s Garanda city, shared with participants two projects related to applying technology in city management.

At the forum, mayors agreed that using modern technology is a tool supporting managers to consolidate people’s conference.

Therefore, to achieve a sustainable and long-term development, it is necessary to have a high interaction between people and authorities, they added.-VNA