Nguyễn Thiện Nhân, secretary of the city’s Party Committee, cuts a ribbon at a ceremony to inaugurate the city’s socio-economic forecast and simulation centre on Thursday. — VNS Photo Bồ Xuân Hiệp

HCM CITY — To develop its smart city project by 2025, HCM City needs to call for investors who can transfer technologies and learn from developed countries’ smart-city experiences, a top city official said on Thursday at the inauguration ceremony for the city’s new socio-economic forecasting and simulation centre.

Nguyễn Thiện Nhân, secretary of the city’s Party Committee, said: “HCM City will give priority to investors who can help develop our smart city project by using new technologies, transferring technologies to local companies, and investing in R&D and technical infrastructure development.” 

Approved by the city’s People’s Committee, the socio-economic forecasting and simulation centre is being developed by the HCM City Institute for Development Studies. 

The centre, which will provide city leaders with information to make decisions, will also receive feedback from residents and the business community about smart city activities.

As part of the smart city project, the forecasting and simulation centre will analyse issues related to socio-economic development strategies and targets in both domestic and foreign markets based on databases that are now being compiled, according to Nhân.

It will also apply data display technology to present results from quantitative models and carry out independent research reports to set annual socio-economic targets and five-year plans for local governments.

In addition, the centre will provide consultancy, facilitate scientific activities, and give advice to local authorities on establishing relations with expert agencies in the fields of analysis, forecasting and simulation models.

Achievements

Trần Vĩnh Tuyến, vice chairman of the city’s People’s Committee, said the city would continue to build a common-use shared database, a smart administration centre, and an information security centre.

Information from many fields has already been collected and integrated so that city leaders can easily grasp and evaluate the data, thereby shortening the time to handle work.

City authorities have already launched a pilot open data portal for the city at https://data.hochiminhcity.gov.vn

Under the smart city project, the city will provide information on medical examinations and treatment facilities as well as medical practice certificates, he said.  

In the long term, data from many other areas will be included on the website to provide information on health, transport, investment, environment and climate. 

The public as well as businesses will be free to look up, use and share the information on the website. 

The city government is encouraging businesses to use the open ecosystem data to create new, high-value products, and contribute to a knowledge-based economy and start-up ecosystem.

The People’s Committee has also approved a plan to build a Smart Urban Operation Centre (phase 1) with total investment of VNĐ30 billion (US$1.29 million).

The operation centre, which will be based at the HCM City People’s Committee office, will use a database from camera systems in districts 1, 5, 12 and Phú Nhuận in the first phase.

The centre, which will open within the year, will also receive and process emergency and rescue information through a telecom number.

The centre aims to help maintain the city’s sustainable growth and raise living standards while providing the best public services. Feedback from the public on the city's management and administrative task will also be collected there.
The smart city project aims to resolve problems such as unsustainable economic growth, flooding, traffic congestion and pollution, and improve interaction between the city administration, businesses and citizens. — VNS