HCM CITY — District authorities in HCM City are making full use of IT applications in administrative reform and urban management, according to the city’s Department of Science and Technology.

Under the department’s assistance, the People’s Committee in District 6, for instance, is using a geographic information system (GIS) to improve management of trade and tourism.

A database on the trading industry is integrated with another on traffic, administrative boundaries and statistics.

The database helps staff to verify, approve, and issue licenses, and re-check trading applicants applying for registration.    

Districts 1, 7, Phú Nhuận and Bình Tân also are applying GIS to improve trade management.

In addition, GIS helps authorities in districts 6, 10, Cần Giờ and Phú Nhuận manage and advertise tourism activities. Information about destinations is provided to tourists via this application.

In Bình Thạnh District, the People’s Committee has piloted an application called “Bình Thạnh trực tuyến” (online Bình Thạnh) to identify and resolve violations against environmental hygiene, pavement encroachment and illegal construction.

Besides the surveillance app, teams in charge of managing urban order help identify problems.  

The mobile app can be downloaded on the App Store and CH Play for installment.

Within two hours of receiving a complaint via the app, ward-level People’s Committees send their staff to the locations where the violation has occurred.

They then publish the results of the resolution of the problem via the app for residents to monitor. Residents dissatisfied about the results can continue to lodge complaints via the app.  

During the pilot period from April to December, 2017, more than 5,500 downloads for installment occurred, and more than 6,624 complaints sent.

All of the complaints were resolved, and more than 1,600 violators were fined for a total of more than VNĐ2 billion (US$85,989).

The app has been upgraded with new functions that provide further information for residents.

Residents can send complaints about flooding, fallen trees and social issues to the district authorities via the app.

Nguyễn Bảo Quốc, deputy chief of the Secretariat of Bình Thạnh People’s Council and People’s Committee, said the app has helped district authorities resolve administrative problems more effectively and quickly.

He said residents were also pleased with the app.

In District 12, chatbots on Facebook are used by authorities to provide rapid and automatic answers related to administrative reforms.

Lê Huỳnh Minh Tú, vice chairman of the District 12 People’s Committee, said that technology could not fully replace staff but the app can help publish information.

A report from the city’s Department of Science and Technology found that the fund for science and technology activities in the city’s 24 districts totalled more than VNĐ36 billion ($1.6 million) last year, nearly eight times higher than 2017.

A representative said the department would continue to send its experts to districts which need to apply IT in their management. — VNS