VietNamNet Bridge - Hanoi needs up to VND60 trillion, or $3 billion to build a smart city that applies information technology in all areas. This plan will be submitted to the Hanoi People's Council in early December.




Talking on the sidelines of a seminar on "Building a Smarter City" held on November 22, Mr. Van Dong, director of the Hanoi Department of Information and Communications, said Hanoi's goal is to become the pioneer in the application and development of information technology.

According to the draft IT development plan to 2020, with the vision to 2030, Hanoi will apply IT in all fields from education to healthcare, transportation, electricity, water management, etc.

The city is also expected to mobilize about VND60 trillion in the next 20 years. The city budget billion will supply around VND8 trillion and the remaining will be mobilized from other sources. The Hanoi government will submit this plan to the Hanoi People’s Council for approval in early December.

Saying that this long-term plan is for "the future," but according to Mr. Dong, the stages of this plan have been clearly outlined. Hanoi is preparing conditions to improve the e-government in the next three years with a capital of about VND1 trillion ($500 million). Until 2015, all 577 communes and wards of Hanoi will be fully equipped with networking computes to enable their communications with people through the one-stop administrative system; have software to manage data on resources, population and households, etc.

According to Dong, in addition to the e-government, traffic is a field that Hanoi should choose to test the application of IT in the future because traffic congestion affects everyone.

"By 2030, Hanoi will become a smart city when it completes all objectives of the plan," Dong said.

According to Mr. Vo Tan Long, General Director of IBM Vietnam, with the trend of the 21st century is the century of the cities (where 70% of the population will be hosted by 2050), the application of IT in management is an indispensable requirement for leaders of major cities such as Hanoi.

Long said that to turn Hanoi into a "smart city," the data of all fields from traffic to water supply, etc. needs to be integrated. The city leaders will use that information to make better decisions.

According to the draft IT development plan to 2020 – the vision to 2030, there are three criteria for Hanoi to aims to the top spot is the construction of e-government; application of IT to serve industrialization and modernization culture and developing the IT industry.

Compiled by Nam Nguyen