Experts have given recommendations to the central city of Da Nang to become a smart city in the near future.

A birdview of Da Nang from Vo Nguyen Giap street 

Da Nang boasts high potential to become a leading smart city in the country, said Pham The Truong, General Director of Microsoft Vietnam at a conference in the city on September 26.

The city has opened its door to technology investors, he said, adding that in the future, Microsoft will work with Da Nang in various technology sectors, contributing to the city’s road towards becoming a smart city.

Initially, Microsoft will install a programme to protect children on the internet and support the training of teachers in Da Nang. In the future, the firm will pilot smart solutions in the city, while continuing to invest in technology and share experience with Da Nang, said Truong.

Nguyen Quang Thanh, Director of the Da Nang Department of Information and Communications, said the city hopes to partner with Microsoft in education, health, technology and especially data collection and analysis.

He expressed his hope that through the conference, Da Nang city can learn from the experience of other countries, thus building a programme.

He said that the city will strengthen international cooperation, while attracting more resources from international organisations and businesses to build a smart city.

Participants at the event proposed several solutions for Da Nang to become a smart city, including applying the Internet of Things in strengthening security through the supervision of cameras and smartphones; the building of smart parking places and the installing of system to detect illegal parking and manage public transport; and the construction of smart building; and the developing of a platform to gather data on damage from disasters to serve the recovery process.

Da Nang’s smart city project for 2018-2025 was issued in December 2018. The project has goals and roadmaps for smart city building, as well as a list of major works for priority.

The project will be implemented in three phases. In the first phase until 2020, the city will build infrastructure and a smart data platform to support all applications of a smart city.

In the second phase from 2020 to 2025, the applications piloted in the previous phase will be made smarter to serve businesses, locals and tourists, while urban management will be transformed from traditional methods to data-based methods.

Meanwhile, in the third phase from 2025 to 2030, community applications and in-depth technology such as artificial intelligence and virtual reality will be developed.

Over the years, Da Nang has rolled out several measures to become a smart city.

In August this year, Da Nang won an Asia-Oceanian Computing Industry Organisation (Asocio) Smart City Award for its outstanding initiatives of a smart city during the Asocio Smart City Summit in Bangkok, Thailand. Da Nang was one of eight cities from 24 economic members of the Asocio to receive the smart city award this year.

Da Nang is planning to become a smart city and the first in Vietnam to join the smart city network of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) by 2030.

The city approved a framework plan in 2018 with information and technology infrastructure.

The plan focuses on smart management, smart economy, smart environment, smart living, smart citizens and smart traffic to build the city’s link with the 126 strong smart city network.

Da Nang was the first city in Vietnam to launch an e-government system in 2014, and transferred the system to 16 cities and provinces in 2016. According to a report, Da Nang’s e-government system had been used by 225 agencies.