The Viet Nam Smart City Award 2020 was officially launched. — VNS Photo

The Viet Nam Association for Software and IT Services (VINASA) on Monday launched the Viet Nam Smart City Award 2020 to promote the sustainable development of smart cities in the country.

The award, organised for the first time by VINASA, is hoped to encourage organisations and developers that contributed to the development of smart cities in Viet Nam.

Building and developing smart cities are a new trend in the world and deployed in many countries. In Viet Nam, towards the goal of green growth, sustainable development and improving smart cities, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on August 1, 2018, issued Decision 950 approving a project for sustainable smart city development.

According to the Ministry of Construction, the development of smart cities has received attention from ministries, international organisations and people. By the end of June, 38 out of all 63 localities were building projects for smart city development.

The Ministry of Information and Communications, at the end of May 2019, issued the ICT Reference Framework for Smart City Development Version 1.0. In September 2019, the ministry announced the Viet Nam Smart City Index by 2025. In November 2019, it instructed the People's Committees of provinces to pilot smart city services to avoid wasteful investment.

The Viet Nam Smart City Award, which will be organised annually, is expected to create a driving force to promote technological innovations in parallel with innovations in mechanisms and policies.

Speaking at a press conference on Monday, VINASA’s chairman Truong Gia Binh said: “Smart city is one of the best ways to serve people and businesses. They are not only urban areas with 'residence environment', but also a city of frequent interactions among people - businesses - government. Thereby, together, we can create greener, more modern, safe, convenient and better cities.”

“Towards these values, the main purpose of the Viet Nam Smart City Award is to promote and encourage the building of smart cities in the country. This will also be an important foundation to promote economic and social development,” Binh said.

Nguyen Thi Thu Giang, VINASA’s general secretary said the award would be given to four groups including six kinds of urban areas, smart real estate projects and smart buildings, smart industrial park (IP) projects and technology solutions for smart cities, property projects and IPs.

Each group would have specific evaluation criteria, Giang added.

Group 1 would encourage the building of a legal corridor, planning, architecture, technical infrastructure, human resources and public services. Group 2 aims to promote the building of the living environment, multi-utility and a civilised community for residents. Group 3 encourages the creation of a complete business investment attractive environment for Vietnamese and FDI enterprises. Group 4 would promote highly effective technology innovations in all city, urban, real estate and industrial real estate projects.

The award will receive applications from September 7 to October 10. The award ceremony will take place on November 17, also the Viet Nam Smart City Summit 2020. — VNS