THƠ — Cần Thơ, the biggest and most modern city in the Mekong Delta region, is expected to be a smart city by 2025.

At the conference ‘Developing Cần Thơ to be a smart city in the period from 2016 to 2025’ yesterday, Dương Thế Dũng,  deputy director of the city Department of Information and Communication, said that the goal of this plan is to improve people’s living and working conditions.

A smart city accelerates civic engagement in urban management based on the improvement of competitiveness and socioeconomic development.

According to Dũng, the plan requires effective communication to improve public services, giving feedback and proposing demands. Urban and social infrastructure planning and investing has to be compatible with the process of developing a smart city.

Setting up a standard for public services, specifying policies for public-private partnerships, fostering start-ups and enhancing international co-operation are among solutions that Dũng proposed to turn Cần Thơ into a smart city by 2025.

Speaking at the conference, Võ Thành Thống, head of Cần Thơ City People’s Committee, said the conference was an open platform in which experts could share their opinions in implementing a smart city plan, applying smart solutions in management for the city’s development.

Nguyễn Văn Thành, deputy minister of public security, told the Vietnam News Agency that a city turns smart when it can improve the investment environment, manage natural resources and meet security and safety standards.

Participants discussed urban management on Phú Quốc Island, which is soon to be Việt Nam’s Special Economic Zone, and the experiences of Singaporean firms in urban safety, environment, urban planning and digital governance.

The conference also witnessed the signing ceremony of co-operation agreement between Cần Thơ City and Vietnam Posts and Communications Group (VNPT).

VNPT will set up a smart city framework system including an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) framework and a smart city solution framework which ensures the smart city solutions of all developers can run on this platform. – VNS