HCM City – The Kiên Giang Province People’s Committee has approved making Phú Quốc a smart city by 2020.

The project will be based on the Việt Nam Post and Telecommunications Corporation (VNPT)’s information communications technology infrastructure and the province’s e-governance.

It seeks to develop Phú Quốc island into a smart, hospitable and safe city that attracts tourists, improve the quality of services available to local residents and tourists and urban management.

The most important factor in making Phú Quốc a “smart” city is information and telecommunications infrastructure, which must be capable of supporting all functions of e-government and smart services in tourism, transport, environment, healthcare, education and finance.

The project will invest in an optic-fibre network, develop and expand 4G services in the island, provide free wi-fi, usher in e-governance, set up online management of visitors, and offer online management of healthcare and education, among other things.

“The project will improve the quality and effectiveness as well as reduce the cost of State management; provide convenient services and ensure safety for tourists and locals and create breakthroughs for the socio-economic development of Phú Quốc Island,” Mai Văn Huỳnh, deputy chairman of the Kiên Giang People’s Committee, told the Đầu Tư (Việt Nam Investment Review) newspaper.

VNPT has signed many agreements and worked closely with agencies in Kiên Giang and Phú Quốc Island and ministries.

For the online management of visitors, VNPT has trained over 90 police officers and workers in 200 guest houses and hotels on the island. Hotels no longer need to take guests’ passports to the local police station for registration.

For monitoring the environment, VNPT has collected information to monitor water bodies, air and noise, and carried out studies to build stations to monitor household wastewater treatment, air and seawater.

VNPT has already installed 20 cameras and wifi equipment in six places around Dương Đông town and two others in An Thới town.

For e-governance, VNPT has reviewed the current e-government model in Phú Quốc, updated it and provided training to staff so that they can migrate to the proposed new emodel.

“VNPT is in various stages of implementing ‘smart city’ projects in eight provinces around Việt Nam,” Lương Mạnh Hoàng, deputy general director of VNPT, said. “We will build the best smart city in Phú Quốc.” -- VNS