Finland Supports HCM City with Smart Urban Development

Despite its small population, Finland is one of the most highly developed economies in Europe and is now at the forefront of the application of the smart solutions for urban management. Specifically, the country has built up a typical smart urban area which is fully integrated with solutions in traffic management, waste management, water management, intelligent power management, health care system, education system, and online shopping.

 

Mr Jan Vapaavuori said that the Finnish government wants to share the solutions and its technology in the field of the global urban management intelligence. In Vietnam, there are a number of Finnish companies who are implementing urban management projects in some big cities such as Hai Phong, Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City. Mr Jan Vapaavouri stressed that along with the rapid development, large urban areas are facing with challenges of quick urbanisation that results in overloaded infrastructure, environmental pollution and traffic jams. Therefore, he believes solutions of Finland will create many opportunities to be applied successfully in Vietnam. He said that they pay attention to new urban areas in Ho Chi Minh City like Thu Thiem (737ha), Cu Chi (6,000ha), and Hiep Phuoc- Nha Be (3.600ha). It is easier to implement smart solutions for these new urban areas in Ho Chi Minh City rather than a historic district area.

 

According to Huynh Kim Tuoc, Director of the Energy Conservation Centre of Ho Chi Minh City, the city has very complex infrastructure that may face pervasive development orientation in the future if smart management and technology integration are not soon implemented.

The conference witnessed the signing ceremony between the Viope company (Finland) and the GSOFT company (Vietnam) to cooperate to implement an online education solutions project. At the first phase of the project, the Viope and GSOFT will open an online school in Vietnam, named ViFi University.

According to Le Manh Ha, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City, with the population of 10 million, Ho Chi Minh City is facing overcrowded infrastructure systems, environmental pollution, and negative impacts of climate change. Recently, the City has implemented several measures to reduce traffic congestion, combat wetland and control environmental pollution as well as the waste. Ho Chi Minh City is also building a smart urban through the application of technology and information technology in urban management and traffic organisation and it has achieved some positive outcomes; however, these results are very limited. Mr Ha said that Finland has a developed economy with strong experiences in smart urban management in Europe. With support from Finland, Ho Chi Minh City will overcome consequences arising from urbanisation such as traffic congestion, flooding, pollution, low quality of living space and many problems in other fields. This will contribute efficiently to urban management. The city will become a smart urban area in the future.