Hanoi (VNA) - Booming cities and vigorous urbanisation arechallenging Vietnam’s future, according to a business conference titled"Smart Cities" held in Hanoi on September 27.

The conference, held by the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT), the GermanEmbassy and Siemens, was told the nation needed to promote smart urban centresas locations like Hanoi and HCM City were struggling to cope with overstretchedinfrastructure. 

Pham Trong Thuc, Director of the General Directorate of Energy’s renewableenergy department, said the Vietnamese Government had paid much attentionto urbanisation.

“We understand clearly the role and importance of urban centres in supportingthe integration of Vietnam’s economy with the world’s as well as in promoting sustainablegrowth in the region,” Thuc said.

He added that Vietnam had identified the development of smart cities as notonly best choice, but one in alignment with the global megatrend.

“We believe smart urban technologies are essential to supporting economicgrowth while also controlling the ecological, infrastructural and socialimpacts associated with continuing urbanisation.”

Vietnam has one of the highest urbanisation speeds in Southeast Asia – 3.4percent a year. Population in urban areas accounted for 35.7 percent of thenational total. It is estimated that urban populations will reach 40 percent ofthe country’s total by 2020.

However, the quality of urban areas in Vietnam is low due to lack of integratedinfrastructure and slowness in building it compared to socio-economicdevelopment.

The conference was told the infrastructure system in big cities such as Hanoi andHCM City had been overloaded, causing regular traffic jams and floods.

“The vigorous development of cities presents decision-makers and urban plannerswith enormous infrastructure challenges. Not only is it important to guaranteea high quality of life for city dwellers, but also to ensure that metropolisesremain economically competitive and that resources are handled responsibly,” hesaid.

Sharing experience in building smart cities in Germany, Jörg Rüger, FirstSecretary for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and UrbanDevelopment at the Embassy of Germany in Hanoi, said digitalisation wouldfundamentally change the way people lived and worked.

“Smart cities are not an end in themselves. Instead, it is intended to servesustainability goals at all levels, be it social, ecological or economic. Witha new urban agenda, the United Nations had set new standards for urban development,putting the needs of people at the centre of action,” he said.

Siemens Vietnam President and CEO Pham Thai Lai said: “We understand very wellthe challenges Vietnam is facing, and we are working with cities such as Hanoi andHCM City on new city districts and urban mobility options to help overcomethese challenges."

"We have a unique digital offering for the infrastructure needs of a city.We are working directly with the city to ensure that digital technologies areintegrated into planning to immediately reduce congestion, improve air qualityand increase energy reliability," Lai said.-VNA