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

  • OBU orders and CEO changes for Q-Free
    January 6, 2014
    Portuguese tag issuer Via Verde, part of the Brisa Group, has ordered on-board units from Q-Free in an order worth approximately US$1.9 million. The order will be delivered within the second quarter of 2014. Q-Free’s fourth generation OBU610 is small and unobtrusive, yet powerful enough to support all applicable 5.8GHz CEN DSRC protocols for automatic registration, identification and fee collection from vehicles. “Via Verde has been customer of Q-Free since 1995 and we have now supplied more than 3.2
  • Newcastle rush-hour traffic trials get the go-ahead
    February 15, 2013
    Traffic trials aimed at streamlining the rush-hour commute in the UK’s north-east have been given the green light. The project in Newcastle involves new satellite navigation technology which helps drivers adjust their speed so they can pass through a series of lights on green. The European project is being led by Newcastle University and Newcastle City Council, and aims to reduce city centre congestion and pollution associated with stop-start driving. Phil Blythe, Professor of Intelligent Transport Systems
  • UK Government Air Quality Plan – call for funding for FCEVs
    July 27, 2017
    Following the release of the UK Government’s final Air Quality Plan, in which it announced that it will ban all petrol and diesel vehicles (including hybrids) from 2040, ITM Power says this represents an historic first step towards cleaner and greener transport in the UK. However, it is calling on the UK Government to provide equivalent financial support for fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV) infrastructure as it has already provided for plug-in battery electric vehicle (BEV) infrastructure. The company, wh
  • US ITS sector needs strategic leadership
    January 31, 2012
    The US is losing its advantage in the ITS sector because of a lack of strategic leadership, according to a new report from the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. Here, Stephen Ezell, one of the report's authors, talks to ITS International about what can be done to remedy the situation. A new report from the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), Explaining International IT Leadership: Intelligent Transportation Systems, makes for sobering reading within the US ITS community.