VietNamNet Bridge - Legal obstacles are hindering the construction of smart cities in Vietnam.

About 250 cities worldwide are developing smart cities, according to Smart City Tracker Q1/2017. Centralized management in smart cities allows municipal authorities to adjust policies to best serve citizens. 

Nguyen Thanh Hung, Deputy Minister of Information and Communication, said that Vietnam still doesn’t have comprehensive standards on smart cities. The world is just in the early stage of developing smart cities. ISO has just begun cooperating with IEC to issue standards directly related to smart urban areas in 2017.

With a desire to have standards on smart cities, Hung, speaking at the second Vietnam Private Sector Forum in 2017, called for close coordination among all enterprises.

“The Ministry of Information and Communication is going to build up the standards related to information & communication technology in smart city development. We hope that enterprises will join forces with the state management agency to build standards,” he said.

Meanwhile, businesses have pointed out many obstacles in the state’s policies which are hindering the development of smart cities. 

Bui Quang Ngoc, CEO of FPT, the largest Vietnamese IT conglomerate, said the major problem lies in the inequality between state-owned and private enterprises.

Ngoc complained that enterprises now have to pay too much for public utility telecommunications, and have to allocate huge capital for the internet line. 

Meanwhile, large provinces and cities in Vietnam are moving ahead with plans to build smart cities. 

In November 2016, the Binh Duong provincial People’s Committee approved the ‘Binh Duong Smart City’ project. The project will be implemented through Navigator 2021 strategy, which shows the work that needs to be done in different fields, from labor force preparation and environment to infrastructure development.

Binh Duong hopes that by 2021, the Binh Duong Smart Area, which includes one city and four towns in the southern part of the province, will gain the Smart21 title – becoming one of 21 typical smart areas in the world, to be recognized by ICF.

In related news, Thoi Bao Kinh Te Viet Nam reported that Trilliant Networks, a global provider of Internet of Things (IoT) and smart energy solutions, together with the HCMC Power Corporation (EVNHCMC), has successfully completed the pilot of Vietnam’s first smart city communications platform. 

The platform serves as a foundational step in Electricity of Vietnam (EVN)’s commitment to advancing efficiency, reliability, and affordability of energy for their customers.

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