The central city of Da Nang and Facebook on July 31 kicked off a partnership programme on enhancing disaster response and digital capacity, the first of its kind sealed between Facebook and a Vietnamese locality.

At the launch ceremony of the partnership 

The partnership includes training activities to boost capacity of local public personnel in using the social network as a fast and effective communications channel with each other and with residents.

Facebook also introduced a data for community programme that includes population density and disaster maps.

Vietnamese agencies can use the density map when it comes to planning for disaster response. Meanwhile, the disaster map is able to provide near-real-time insights into affected people’s electricity accessibility, evacuation status, and demand for necessities and services, among others, to help humanitarian organisations coordinate their work during disasters.

Nguyen Thi Phuong, Vice Director of the municipal Department of Information and Communications, said for 10 consecutive years, the city has taken the lead in the Vietnam ICT Index, which ranks the readiness for information and communications technology development and application.

To become a smart city, Da Nang now offers 847 online public services, accounting for 65 percent of the city’s total administrative procedures.