VietNamNet Bridge - Vietnam needs to set up a set of standards on smart urban areas to shape sustainable development of cities, and set criteria for assessing the quality of life and services provided to the community, experts say. 

To solve the problems arising from rapid urbanization such as traffic congestion, lack of parking space and administrative overload, modern technologies should be used to monitor and support management and bring better life to people. 

A smart city is understood as an urban area with modern infrastructure and the application of IT that serves the management of the area. 

In October 2015, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) defined a smart city:  “A smart sustainable city is an innovative city that uses information and communication technologies (ICTs) and other means to improve quality of life, efficiency of urban operation and services, and competitiveness, while ensuring that it meets the needs of present and future generations with respect to economic, social, environmental as well as cultural aspects.”

According to experts, smart cities are divided into four layers – sensor, network, platform and application layers. With the structure, core technologies are concentrated in the application layer, considered the most important central technology infrastructure. Information technology is considered a tool to connect technology infrastructure of smart cities.

Smart citites can also be understood as an organic connection between technology, people and institutional components.

In late 2015, the PM approved the national program on applying IT in the operations of state agencies with an aim to deploy smart cities in at least three localities in accordance with the criteria set by the Ministry of Information & Communication.

The Communist Party Congress’s Resolution also emphasized that Vietnam prioritizes the development of smart cities.

Many cities and provinces including Hue, Da Nang, Quang Ninh, HCMC, Phu Quoc Island, Lam Dong and Binh Duong have kicked off projects on smart city development.

A research work by Nguyen Van Khoi, Pham Le Cuong and Ha Minh Hiep from STAMEQ shows that there is a growing tendency of developing core technologies to serve as the fundamental for smart urban area’s infrastructure. 

This means that every smart urban area focuses on developing certain groups of core technologies such as transport, environment, high technology and IT.

Intelligent traffic technology, for example, enhances the efficiency and quality of urban traffic through surveillance cameras, remote sensing and data analysis technologies to manage the traffic output and cargo circulation in real time.

Another trend in smart city deployment is the development of new IT services to increase government connections and the connections between government and people and businesses, and enhance accountability and government transparency.

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