The southern province of Bình Dương has become the first and only one in Việt Nam to be named a Smart21 community for 2019 by the New York-based Intelligent Community Forum (ICF).— Photo nld.vn

BÌNH DƯƠNG — The southern province of Bình Dương has become the first and only one in Việt Nam to be named a Smart21 community for 2019 by the New York-based Intelligent Community Forum (ICF).

At ceremonies in Hamilton, Ontario in Canada and headquarters in New York on Thursday, the ICF published a list of 21 cities for their smart city development strategies.

Of the 2019 list, cities from 10 countries and territories on six continents were honoured, including Chicago and Illinois in the US, Moscow in Russia, Adelaide in Australia and 17 other cities from Brazil, Canada, France, India, Kenya, Taiwan and Việt Nam.

There are currently 180 members from different countries, territories, cities and regions participating in the ICF. The top Smart21 was selected based on criteria assessed by experts led by Normal Jacknis, former director of Cisco IBSG Public Sector and CIO of Westchester County, New York.

ICF believed that the selected cities and regions were those which had set up good strategies for innovation and long-term success.

Trần Thanh Liêm, chairman of Bình Dương’s People’s Committee, said to soha.vn that ICF experts had visited Bình Dương to assess the province’s smart city project.

He said that being named in the Smart21 showed that Bình Dương was on the right track.

“The recognition will help create favourable conditions for Bình Dương to establish stronger relationships with smart communities around the world to exchange information, experience and attract more talents to work in the province,” Liêm said.

With the help from Eindhoven in the Netherlands in late 2016, Bình Dương Province approved the Bình Dương Smart City Project with Bình Dương City as the nucleus.

According to experts, Bình Dương shared many similarities with the city of Eindhoven, with a large business community, and many vocational training institutions and universities. Bình Dương Province has a co-operative relationship with more than 65 countries and territories with nearly 20,000 foreigners living and working there. — VNS