Skip to main content

Finland to help Vietnam develop smart cities

Speaking at a seminar held in Ho Chi Minh City, Finland's Minister of Economic Affairs Jan Vanpaavuori said that that his country would help Viet Nam achieve ambitious targets for smart and green cities by providing assistance in sustainable urban planning, industrial design, clean technologies and digital services, along with education and training.
October 23, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
Speaking at a seminar held in Ho Chi Minh City, Finland's Minister of Economic Affairs Jan Vanpaavuori said that that his country would help Viet Nam achieve ambitious targets for smart and green cities by providing assistance in sustainable urban planning, industrial design, clean technologies and digital services, along with education and training.

"The fast urbanisation and dynamic modernisation process in Viet Nam has increased demand for energy efficiency, smart transport and modern city infrastructure. This enormous growth potential makes Viet Nam a very interesting partner in the smart city area," he said.

Vanpaavuori said Finland had invested a great deal in demand-driven innovations and new business solutions, assisted by forward-thinking companies. He said the strengths of the Finnish economy and industries complemented Viet Nam's development needs and challenges.

Finnish companies have already contributed to Viet Nam's Green City targets in a number of ventures, including waste-to-energy plants, urban infrastructure and bridge development and the development of Ho Chi Minh City’s new urban area.
Experts estimate that the population of cities will increase from 3.3 billion to nearly 5 billion by 2030.

"With fast-growing and transforming cities, we are faced with challenges like air pollution, traffic problems, poor or non-existing city planning, lack of space and sustainable energy solutions. If not taken care of, at worst this leads to serious socio-economic and environmental problems," Vanpaavuori said.

Le Manh Ha, deputy chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, said the city wanted to become a smart city by using IT in urban management. "The city wants to access advanced technology from Finland in urban design, traffic management organisation and wastewater management so that we can create sustainable urbanisation and a growth model," he said.

Related Content

  • AirScape monitors pollution solutions
    July 4, 2022
    Trial in London is using 225 air quality sensors to help inform policymakers and public
  • ANPR - cost-efficient traffic management, enforcement and more
    January 23, 2012
    Geoff Collins of Vysionics Intelligent Traffic Solutions talks about the near-term prospects of ANPR. The continued absence of a champion for its cause is preventing digital enforcement technology from delivering the true levels of cost-effectiveness of which it is capable, according to Geoff Collins, sales and marketing director of ANPR specialist Vysionics Intelligent Traffic Solutions.
  • Smart parking to enable intelligent mobility in global mega cities
    June 3, 2015
    New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, Strategic Analysis of Smart Parking Market in Europe and North America, finds that the smart parking market, including peer-to-peer (P2P), earned revenues of US$7.05 billion in 2014 and estimates this to accelerate up to US$43.084 billion in 2025 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17.89 per cent. The parking industry in Europe and North America is rapidly innovating towards ‘smart’. In addition to adopting high-end automation solutions and software for parking
  • EU Transport Commissioner encourages cross-border cooperation
    May 25, 2016
    Opening the 2016 General Assembly of the European Innovation Partnership (EIP) on Smart Cities and Communities (EIP SCC) which aims to improve urban life through more sustainable integrated solutions in transport, energy and ICT sectors, European Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc challenged cities and companies to cooperate across borders, to accelerate and scale investment. She said: "Cleaner air, safer transport networks, reducing congestion, optimising use of existing infrastructure – these are just