The digital transformation successes achieved so far by HCM City will propel its progress towards becoming a smart city this year, officials say.

They note in particular that digital applications played an important role in the city’s fight against COVID-19 last year.

According to the municipal Department of Information and Communication, digital transformation helped forge useful tools in the fight such as a digital map to monitor cases and the spread of the novel coronavirus, or the city-wide use of QR codes to verify vaccination and recovery status.

The city’s 1022 COVID-19 hotline also played a big part in providing timely healthcare advice to patients and assisting those affected by COVID-19. During the pandemic’s peak, the hotline received over 80,000 calls a day.

HCM City has one of the highest smartphone penetration rates in the country, with city-wide internet and 3G, 4G coverage. Local departments have launched numerous mobile applications in many fields including traffic management, healthcare provision and urban planning.

At the start of March the city issued a plan to facilitate the city’s digital transformation process and become a smart city this year by staying focused on digital government, administrative reforms and artificial intelligence (AI) application.

It will facilitate e-commerce and internet payment, and help small- to medium-sized enterprises get access to digital applications to manage their businesses.

The department is working with health authorities to perfect the city’s electronic health profile database.

The city also plans to launch several smart city services this year. For example, the department will introduce an Integrated Service Portal, which will combine many state public services together onto a single web page and mobile application, and locals can easily keep track of how their inquiries are being processed.

HCM City is also working on a system to gather and analyse local opinions on social media using AI to help city leaders come up with appropriate solutions and adjustments. — VNS