The Minister of Construction received a written question from a National Assembly deputy of Hai Phong City that smart city development seems to be a new trend that attracts many city governments today and voters are regularly informed by various mass media. However, it seems that there has not been a concept, a common perception and legalization of "smart cities" up to now.

In response to these contents, the Ministry of Construction said: In 2016, the World Telecommunication Union defined that “A smart sustainable city is an innovative city that uses information and communication technologies and other means to improve quality of life, efficiency of urban operation and services, and competitiveness, while ensuring that it meets the needs of present and future generations with respect to economic, social, environmental as well as cultural aspects”. This is the most universal definition of a smart city to date.

On August 1, 2018, the Prime Minister issued Decision 950/QD-TTg on sustainable smart city development project in Vietnam for the 2018 - 2025 period and to 2030. This defined seven principles and perspectives and four main contents for smart city development in the current period, including: (1) Smart city planning, (2) Smart city construction and management, (3) Delivery of smart utilities for organizations and individuals in cities, and (4) Basic infrastructure is the urban technical infrastructure system and the ICT infrastructure system, which include the interconnected smart city spatial database and the integrated system of the two above systems.

Regarding the status of smart city development, the country presently has 48 out of 63 provinces and cities that have been developing smart cities.

Regarding the deployment and development of smart city utilities and smart services, 57 localities mainly focus on traffic (monitoring traffic order and safety), smart health, smart education and alarming application development. 19 provinces are piloting smart city services under the guidance of the Ministry of Information and Communications.

Some typical localities such as Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, Binh Duong, Thua Thien Hue, Bac Ninh and Binh Phuoc have achieved many successes in smart city management and smart city application in economic and social development, and improved people's quality of life with smart utilities.

After Decision 950 was promulgated, some localities such as Bac Ninh and Binh Phuoc have closely followed its goals and tasks to deploy smart city development and achieved certain success while addressing some problems that pioneering localities encountered such as scattered investment and decentralization for implementation.

Carrying out Decision 950, central agencies have been studying, developing and completing legal documents, mechanisms, policies, and instructions on smart city development as follows:

The construction sector revised and supplemented the Law on Construction 2014: Adding regulations on encouraging information technology application in construction investment, ecological urban development and urban development; issuing regulations on national technical standards and technical guidelines for smart city construction; completing a list of national construction standard systems for smart city development in Vietnam; promulgating guidelines for the establishment of a GIS-based interoperable database system for smart city development.

The information and communication sector issued the ICT Reference Framework for smart city development (version 1.0) and announced the Vietnam Smart Cities Index for the period to 2025 (version 1.0); and guided localities to pilot smart city services.

The science and technology sector published 46 TCVN standards for smart city development. The transport sector issued a standard system for smart city development in the country and continued to research new technologies for smart traffic development.

The natural resources and environment sector submitted the project "Building and perfecting the national geographic database" to the Prime Minister for approval.

According to the Ministry of Construction, solutions and contents need to be promoted in the coming period to develop smart cities in Vietnam: Performing tasks and solutions under Decision 950 like completing legal documents, mechanisms, policies, economic and technical norms; completing standards and regulations for smart cities; promoting investment in smart city infrastructure development; developing and applying smart city utilities; training human resources, mobilizing domestic and foreign resources.

The ministry will focus on speeding up guidance, implementing and applying smart city development, promoting smart city planning and smart construction management, applying GIS-based geographic information system for urban city planning management and implementation.

The ministry will boost international cooperation with partners in Russia, the US, Japan, South Korea and ASEAN, coordinate with other countries in the smart city network, attract international investment resources for smart city development in Vietnam.

The agency will support localities, as directed by the Prime Minister, continue to maintain, inspect and guide localities to carry out smart city development projects, assist them to pilot smart city development.