The award, presented by the Vietnam Software and IT Services Association (VINASA) on December 18, honors the cities, organizations, and businesses considerably helping cities become smarter and more livable, competitive, and sustainable. It is also intended to encourage enterprises to create advanced technological products and boost cooperation in building and developing smart cities in the country.

Da Nang also secured three specialized prizes: the smart governance and management award (also presented to northern Thai Nguyen province and Sam Son city of central Thanh Hoa province), the smart healthcare award, and the smart environment award.

While the smart tourism award was bestowed upon the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong, Thai Nguyen obtained the attractive startup city award.

Truong Gia Binh, Chairman of the VINASA Founding Council, said smart city building is now not only the choice of big cities but also an urgent requirement of all cities nationwide. The COVID-19 pandemic over the last two years has resulted in more pressure forcing cities, especially major ones, to swiftly apply technology and smart development solutions to enhance their anti-pandemic capacity, protect people’s health, and maintain production and business activities in the new normal.

For the past nearly five years, 54 of the 63 provinces and centrally-run cities have been conducting smart city building, 30 approved smart city development programmes and plans, 15 approved the architecture for IT and smart city development, and 38 set up provincial-level intelligent operation centers.

Source: VNA