Japanese government agencies have held meetings with leaders of a consortium between Vietnam’s BRG Group and Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation to push progress on the North Hanoi Smart City project.

The capital city of Hanoi has moved up three places from 2023 to reach 97th in the 2024 Smart City Index.

Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Pham Duc Long said the decisive factor for smart city development will be data sharing.

Both Hanoi and HCM City received a rather poor scores of CCC in the Technology aspect, while in terms of Structures, the capital city Hanoi fared a little better than the southern economic center (CC compared to CCC).

Hanoi has moved up three places from last year to reach 97th in the 2024 Smart City Index, as compiled by Swiss business school International Institute for Management Development.

HCM City is focusing on digital transformation to develop itself into a smart urban area by 2030.

The central city of Da Nang has been granted the Best Vietnam Smart City Award 2022, the third time so far.

As a short-term vacation spot, Phu Quoc is also expected to become an ideal place for diverse living demands of global citizens in the future.

Experts say it is necessary to re-plan digital infrastructure and provide services in smart cities that have people and businesses "at the center".

The UK would continue to support Vietnam to realise its commitments at COP26 through smart city solutions, Sam Wood, British deputy consul general in HCM City, said on Monday.

Dr Nguyen Nhat Quang, deputy chair of VINASA’s (Vietnam Software & IT services) founding council, said a smart city is not a design that can be copied, but should be seen as an effective way to develop and run cities.

A smart city project got off the ground in the Thu Thiem New Urban Area in HCMC on September 2, with a total cost of over VND20 trillion.

Building cities and smart domestic and international connections is one of the important issues in urban sustainable development. However, many problems in the process exist.

The southern province of Binh Duong is scheduled to hold a ceremony on June 20-21 to mark it named in the Top 7 Intelligent Communities of 2022 worldwide.

A Smart City Expo & Forum in Asia (Smart City Asia 2022) will be held at the Saigon Exhibition and Convention Centre in Ho Chi Minh City from May 26 to May 28.

While sustainable smart cities are considered a solution to sustain international business investments, for Vietnam experts have advised local cities and provinces to prioritise building them to attract FDI.

With more than 3.5 billion people living in urban areas and 70% of humanity expected to live in cities by 2050, building smart and sustainable cities is a top priority for social development globally.

The central city of Da Nang and the Viettel Military Industry and Telecoms Group (Viettel) have agreed on a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to complete the development of Da Nang into a ‘smart city' by 2025.

To date, 41 out of 63 provinces and centrally-run cities in Vietnam have developed projects on smart cities of various scale.