Binh Duong’s admission to WTA – driving force for urban development (*)

The World Technopolis Association (WTA) currently has 106 members from 48 countries and territories around the world. On a visit of the delegation of leaders of Binh Duong province to Daejeon city, South Korea - the twin city with Binh Duong province, on August 16, 2018, Her Dae Jeong, Mayor of Daejeon and the President of WTA, has officially granted the certificate of Binh Duong province becoming a member of WTA to Tran Thanh Liem, Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee and Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee. The admission demonstrates the continuous efforts of Binh Duong province in the past years to develop into a smart, scientific and sustainably socio-economic city.

Opportunity for Binh Duong to express themselves

On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the founding of WTA, Binh Duong Province is honored to host the event. This is a chance for Binh Duong to show its socio-economic achievements, science and the position of a civilized, dynamic and modern city in front of international friends. The 2018 WTA Summit will be held at the Binh Duong Exhibition and Convention Center with the theme of "Smart Cities - the driving force behind innovation for sustainable development". A series of activities will take place in Binh Duong from the 10th to the 13th, such as the 11th session of the WTA General Assembly, WTA University Presidents’ Forum, WTA Mayors’ Forum, Global Innovation Forum 2018, High Tech Fair, Smart City Initiative for Students in Vietnam and Korea. These events are promising to open up great potential for promoting international cooperation of Binh Duong province and other provinces and cities around the world, especially in the field of smart city building - an important topic that WTA is aiming for.

Thu Dau Mot City urban area. Photo: Xuan Thi

The role of Daejeon city – in brotherhood with Binh Duong province, in Binh Duong's accession to WTA. Over the past 13 years since its foundation should also be taken into consideration. Binh Duong and Daejeon have worked closely together in many fields: economic, cultural, social, educational, health etc. and the admission to WTA. Binh Duong has a huge promotion role in the city of Daejeon. However, it can not be denied that the very strong progress of Binh Duong province in many fields, including science and technology, is the main reason for Binh Duong to be admitted to WTA.

Recently, the Triple Helix model (Government – Universities – Enterprises) has been applied quite thoroughly in Binh Duong, thereby improving the internal force of the province. The model is the expansion of cooperation, attracting literacy and creativity in labor in schools and enterprises, and support. It contributes to bring science-technology, socio-economic, educational and cultural advances together, to achieve many goals. From the model, the "smart city" and "e-government" models are paid special attention to by the province. The admission to WTA not only promotes the development of Binh Duong's economy, attracting foreign investment, but also facilitates the realization of the intelligent city model and e-government, thereby contributing to improving the quality of life of the people.

In fact, Binh Duong has now completed material facilities for the new city with many spacious buildings and is promoting the establishment of electronic government. These steps have opened up many prospects for development for Binh Duong to become a land attracting people to live, work, as well as attracting investment from abroad.

To bring about the dynamics of urban development

It can be said that joining WTA brings the motivation for Binh Duong to try to improve its living and investment environment, deserving to be one of the fastest growing cities in the South of Vietnam. The admission to WTA also opens up many opportunities for cooperation in Binh Duong such as linking science and technology-based innovation with regional development, linking Binh Duong with other cities in the world, building mutual cooperative relationships and bringing benefits to the development of scientific urban centers, including Binh Duong. In addition, joining WTA, Binh Duong will build partnerships, jointly develop high-tech science and processing zones, export processing zones; promote regional development through collaborative activities and exchange of human resources based on partnerships based on collaborative exchange mechanism. It can be said that the southern key economic region with the South East region as the leading, thanks to the Binh Duong’s admission to WTA will grow more.

Participating in the WTA, Binh Duong will carry out many activities to achieve goals such as accessibility and global mobilization. Binh Duong has the opportunity to participate in a wide range of activities to disseminate, track and promote innovative culture around the world. The WTA supports the importance and necessity of science and technology and innovation for sustainable development for international communities. Participating in WTA, Binh Duong will have a great development not only in socio-economic but also in culture and education through WTA's network of universities.

WTA hosts a large network at the regional, national and international levels. Stakeholders will be given opportunities in the area of policy on innovation, enterprise development and regional development based on science and technology. Binh Duong has the advantage of joining later, so it has received all the new knowledge, practice and lessons from the previous cities. From there, Binh Duong can study, propose policies and strengthen its capacity. Binh Duong needs to carry out a lot of policy research and analysis as well as capacity building projects to bridge the gap between science and policy making and narrowing the gap between developed cities. with Binh Duong province itself.

In general, thanks to WTA admission, Binh Duong will not only develop into a scientific and intelligent urban area, attract more foreign investment capital, become the leading province of the country, but also improve the living environment and quality of life for residents with development of university systems, bringing great benefits to businesses. Promising opportunities shall be opening up a lot and it is important that Binh Duong province make efforts to strengthen relations with WTA to turn Binh Duong urban development in all aspects.

Ph.D. Ha Thanh Van (University of Thu Dau Mot)

* (The title is created by editor)

Translated by Vi Bao