Binh Duong strives for a developed, transparent, human-business-centric society

On June 19, at the Provincial Administrative Center, Nguyen Van Loi, Member of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Head of the Provincial Delegation of National Assembly, received the delegation of Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) led by Louis Zacharilla, co-founder of ICF, on the occasion of the event honoring the world’s TOP 7 Intelligent Communities in 2022 held in Binh Duong on June 20 and 21.

Nguyen Van Loi, Member of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Head of the Provincial delegation of National Assembly; and leaders of the Provincial People's Committee, departments, branches, and Becamex IDC receive the delegation of the world’s Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) led by Louis Zacharilla, Co-Founder of ICF.

To find solutions to smart city construction

At the meeting, Nguyen Van Loi emphasized that Vietnam and Binh Duong now aimed to build a developed, fair, transparent, objective, and human-business-centric society. The theme of this event is: "Post-pandemic recovery, digital transformation and innovation to drive growth in the community", which befits the Government of Vietnam. It is a great honor for Binh Duong to host this event.

Nguyen Van Loi added that in recent years, Binh Duong had been investing in and implementing intelligent community building programs according to ICF criteria. From now until 2025, Binh Duong will mobilize all efforts to build up intelligent community – Binh Duong innovation and economic recovery regions with the aspiration of forming a smart city serving people and businesses. At this event, Binh Duong wishes to hear more ideas and contributions from intelligent communities around the world to help the province well implement ICF criteria, successfully build a smart city.

Speaking at the meeting, Louis Zacharilla congratulated Binh Duong's achievements over 25 years of building, developing and strategic orientations of the province in the coming time, including building intelligent community in accordance with ICF criteria. The event, in addition to honoring the top 7 smart communities of the world, will focus on discussing, exchanging experience and finding solutions to overcome difficulties and crises to continue the sustainable development. Louis Zacharilla was impressed with the strong determination of Binh Duong to overcome difficulties and challenges caused by the pandemic to continue to develop. How Binh Duong overcame the pandemic will be shared with the ICF Community, and he will introduce investors to Binh Duong if there is an opportunity.

New opportunities for cooperation

In the afternoon of the same day, at the Provincial Convention and Exhibition Center, Mai Hung Dung, Member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, Permanent Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee; and Louis Zacharilla, Co-founder of ICF, chaired a press conference to inform about the event honoring the world’s top 7 Intelligent Communities in 2022.

The 2022 Top 7 Intelligent Communities Honoring Event is the first international event to be held in Binh Duong after the Covid-19 pandemic. The event will take place on June 20 and 21 at the Provincial Convention and Exhibition Center with the theme "Post-pandemic recovery, digital transformation and innovation to drive growth in the community". Participants include leaders of the Government, ministries and Central departments; leaders of some provinces and cities in the country, businesses, institutes, schools and communities of Binh Duong. In addition, Binh Duong will welcome about 100 foreign guests, including ICF leaders, leaders of several foreign countries and localities, international organizations, multinational corporations; professors, scientists and speakers of research institutes and universities around the world.

According to Louis Zacharilla, the ICF is a forum of nearly 200 thriving intelligent cities around the world. ICF conducted research and evaluated hundreds of cities around the world to select the TOP 21 (Smart 21) of 2022 with a smart city development strategy based on the ICF's set of six criteria. The ICF jury continued to evaluate the specific projects of 21 communities to select the TOP 7 most excellent communities of the year to honor the top 7 in the event held in Binh Duong.

At the press conference, provincial leaders and ICF leaders answered questions of the press about the development of Binh Duong Smart City, such as: Highlights of Binh Duong to be honored as ICF’s top 7? What is the difference of Binh Duong besides the ICF criteria? Which elements that Binh Duong is focusing on? The problem of narrowing the gap between rural and urban areas in the construction of Binh Duong Smart City?...

Mai Hung Dung, Member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, Permanent Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee; and Louis Zacharilla, Co-founder of ICF, chair the press conference.

Speaking at the press conference, Mai Hung Dung, emphasized that this event was an opportunity for organizations in Binh Duong to acquire new knowledge and visions, grasp the overall development of Binh Duong Smart City as well as other communities in the world, learn trends of the current times, advanced technologies and innovations to stimulate socio-economic development, create favorable opportunities for Binh Duong province, businesses, institutes and schools to exchange and connect with the global network of intelligent communities, improve the ability to find new opportunities and partners, and jointly develop management capability, science and technology level, facilitate trade, attract investment, expand cooperation...

Binh Duong has carried out the Binh Duong Smart City Project since 2016 and has been adhering to the concept of economic transformation towards innovation and digitization. Supported and inspired by an intelligent community of ICF in 2011 - Brainport Eindhoven (Netherlands), Binh Duong embarked on an impressive socio-economic development path, has thoroughly applied digital transformation and innovation in specific projects, in order to build and develop Binh Duong more and more intelligent, better and worth living. A digital ecosystem and innovation are being developed strongly in Binh Duong such as Smart Operations Center, EIU Campus with Becamex Business Incubator, Fablabs, Advanced Manufacturing Center; Binh Duong New City World Trade Center... These bring a better life to the Binh Duong community.

With the right strategies and the consistent, solid development of Binh Duong in recent years, Binh Duong has been in the Smart 21 four times in a row and entered the Top 7 for the first time in 2021, along with cities of countries such as Canada, Brazil, Australi ...

EVENT PROGRAM:

- Monday, June 20^th, 2022: tour visiting Binh Duong New City Park, Provincial Administrative Center, Binh Duong Smart Operation Center, Data Center, VSIP 2, My Phuoc Industrial Park, Viet Duc University, Eastern International University.

- Tuesday, June 21^st 2022: ICF conferences and discussions (online and offline), and Gala Dinner at the Provincial Convention and Exhibition Center.

- Other events: Exhibition "Green lifestyle" - ICF connects with the Vietnamese community (OCOP Fair – introduction of OCOP products in Binh Duong province and neighboring provinces; weekend shopping and entertainment venues in the province).

Reported by Phuong Le – Translated by Ngoc Huynh