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

  • March 3, 2017
    Freight poses growing problem for city authorities
    Wes Guckert considers possible solutions and countermeasures to the problems of increased freight deliveries in growing cities. In January 2016, the US Department of Transportation (USDoT) conducted a session on the SmartCity Challenge and Urban Freight and Logistics. This session was a follow-up to the USDoT report titled, Beyond Traffic 2045.
  • February 19, 2014
    Social innovation driving ‘smart’ infrastructure
    The first Social Innovation Forum taking place today in Istanbul, Turkey will focus on urban development and how new, ‘smart’ technologies can deliver innovations that answer society's challenges. Cities are projected to host almost 54 per cent of the world's population by next year, with the United Nations estimating that up to 80 per cent, or approximately 7.5 billion people, of the global population will live in urban areas by 2050. Urbanisation is leading to further stress on infrastructure – power d
  • October 23, 2012
    Ho Chi Minh City plans rapid bus system
    As part of an initiative to develop a modern transport system for Ho Chi Minh City, the municipal administration plans to spend around US$152 million on a bus rapid transit (BRT) project that will run along the 25km Vo Van Kiet – Mai Chi Tho boulevard, connecting the eastern and western parts of the city. The BRT system is expected to have 30 modern buses and, according to the municipal transport department, is a feasible solution for traffic congestion problems. A green corridor that will use solar energy
  • July 26, 2013
    Qatar invests $70 billion to pave the way to world beating transportation
    Eng. Zeina Nazer looks at what Qatar’s recently-announced investment in transport infrastructure will mean on the ground. Qatar is experiencing a rapid economic and industrial growth. This growth is characterised by a rapid population increase and by the urgent need towards the development of both infrastructure projects and major transport projects. In order to handle this rate of development within Qatar, Public Works Authority (Ashghal) is developing a fully-integrated multimodal transportation system in