The southern province of Binh Duong plans to seek more partnerships with neighbouring cities and provinces, businesses and local and international experts to build a Binh Duong smart city, Mai Hung Dung, deputy chairman of the province’s People’s Committee, said at a press conference on November 23.

Dung said the first Binh Duong Smart City Summit held last year was a big success as “it improved Binh Duong’s brand at the international level, helping the province attract interest from foreign businesses.”

But the biggest highlight of the previous summit was the launch of the Binh Duong Smart City Project in collaboration with the city of Eindhoven in the Netherlands.

This year, the province is continuing its cooperation with the Netherlands Consulate General in HCM City to hold a second smart city summit from November 25-27 in Binh Duong New City.

Carel Richter, the Netherlands’ consul general in HCM City, said his organisation was proud of co-organising the summit with the province as the two parties could learn from each other about creating a sustainable future.

He said that smart cities and smart urban planning were important in addressing the challenges of climate change and urban issues such as affordable housing, sustainable building, education and infrastructure.

The province has carefully worked out a plan called Binh Duong Navigator 2021 to tackle these challenges, he added.

The strategic programme implements the Triple Helix model of collaboration, which involves a partnership between research institutions, businesses and the government.

It lists the tasks to be performed in various sectors but focuses on four key areas: people, technology, business and basic conditions such as environmental conditions, quality of living, ITC and infrastructure, among others.

The Triple Helix model, which Binh Duong adopted from Eindhoven, has helped Eindhoven solve many of its problems, according to Peter Portheine, the director of the Dutch think tank Brainport Development.

He said the partnership between Binh Duong and Eindhoven had been built on the sharing of failures.

“When we first met the leaders of Binh Duong, we shared with them all the misfortunes we had in Eindhoven because we made many mistakes before we made a wise decision,” he said. “Sometimes you learn more by sharing the failures than the successes.”

Portheine said his organisation would work with Binh Duong to expand the public-business-academia model to include engagement of communities as Viet Nam should be concerned about inclusive social and economic development.

The annual Binh Duong Smart City Summit is part of Binh Duong Smart City’s yearly agenda.

The summit will feature five activities, targeting a wide range of stakeholders: the public sector, communities, social and political organisations, businesses, and education institutes in and outside the province.

On November 27, there will be a plenary session which will serve as a platform for discussion and sharing of ideas from national and international leaders and experts about the vision, strategy and action programmes of smart city projects around the world.

Among the key events will be a science conference, a business seminar, and an exhibition showcase and demo of high-tech products, IT applications, digital technology trends, industry 4.0 and smart cities.

The second Smart City Hackathon will be a place for young Vietnamese and international enthusiasts in the field of technology to showcase their talent and creativity in designing state management apps (mobile or web-based) for Binh Duong in various sectors such as tourism information, transportation information, information for citizens on policies, and administrative procedures, among others.

The hackthon will be held on November 25 and 26, with the winning teams presenting their solutions at the summit. — VNS