The HCMC government on Sunday unveiled a program to pilot the smart urban model, starting in districts 1 and 12 first, with an aim to address pressing urban issues like social security, healthcare, transport, environment and education on the web.

A representative of VNPT talks about the smart urban technology framework

At a ceremony introducing a scheme called “Developing HCMC into a smart urban city in the 2017-2020 period with a vision to 2025,” the city government demanded that authorities of the two districts work with information technology partners to implement the model.

Given existing infrastructure of the two districts, they will carry out some technology solutions to solve environmental pollution and traffic congestion.

HCMC vice chairman Tran Vinh Tuyen said at the event that the municipal government approved the smart urban scheme after over one year of preparation, and picked districts 1 and 12 to implement the scheme on a trial basis.

City departments and agencies will also follow suit, so that issues of public headaches will be dealt with.

In addition to IT programs on a large scale, some technology solutions will be conducted right away for the benefit of local residents and enterprises.

Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT), a consultant on IT and communications for the city government, said the smart urban technology framework will ensure openness and inheritance in the implementation process, and its operating system will perform analysis and prediction on the basis of big data.

A slew of applications in the transport, environment, education, social security and healthcare sectors will be launched in the coming time.

For example, the HCMC Department of Industry and Trade will apply information technology to expand its scheme on food management, identification and traceability to be aligned with the smart urban model, while the Department of Zoning and Architecture will implement the program on supplying information on urban planning via web applications.

The smart urban model will be implemented in three stages. The first stage between now and 2020 will focus on building the technology foundation that also includes data centers and open-source data, while the second stage to 2025 will center on the launch of smart applications in specific areas. The third stage after 2025 will be built on new visions for development.

SGT