“The digital map of Phu Yen province has become so detailed that it can show every alley and every corner of the city and surrounding areas, so it is very convenient for everyone to look up information, especially for tourism,” said Phu Yen’s chair Pham Dai Duong.

Nguyen Thanh Hung, chair of the Vietnam E-commerce Association

“We have also integrated other items such as online feedback, allowing people to report social problems to local authorities. For example, they can complain about environmental pollution at hot spots and ask the local authorities to settle this,” he said.

The ata collection for the digital map Vmap and the humanitarian information system iNhandao are two projects within the frame of the Vietnamese Digital Knowledge System Plan.

The initial database has taken shape, but the two pioneering component projects of the Vietnamese Digital Knowledge System Plan still needs more information contribution from the community to develop.

Phu Yen has beautiful landscapes, but since they ‘still have not appeared on economic and tourism maps yet’, they are little known.

Just within two weeks after starting collecting data and guidance for the post system and the provincial Youth Union, 218,000 bits of data have been collected.

After more than a year of implementation under the chair Vietnam Post Office, the Vietnam Digital Map - Vmap has 23.4 million bits of address data. The data has been collected by 120,000 volunteers, who are officers of the Vietnam Post Office and members of the Vietnam Youth Union.

In addition to the major functions such as searching for addresses and giving directions, Vmap also displayed detailed addresses of each house number, in both urban and mountainous areas, and remote areas - which other digital maps could not show.

As for iNhandao, which collects addresses surveyed and managed by the Vietnam Red Cross Association to serve humanitarian aid, in the first phase, 17,000 addresses have been updated.

The strong point of iNhandao is the open information system with details about every case that needs support. This connects organizations and individuals in the humanitarian field, so that humanitarian aid can be given to the right people. The transparency of the information system (everyone can search for information and verify) will help restrict the negative aspects in humanitarian assistance activities.

The data has caught attention from Vietnam’s e-commerce sector. Nguyen Thanh Hung, chair of the Vietnam E-commerce Association, said online businesses have been growing very rapidly.

Large e-commerce firms like Sendo which are expanding to rural and mountainous markets are looking forward to integrating information from Vmap.

Thanh Lich

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