Ceremony inaugurating Top 7 Intelligent Communities honoring

In the morning of June 21, at Binh Duong provincial Exhibition and Convention Center, the Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) held the opening ceremony to honor Top 7 ICF 2022 under the theme of From Recovery to Prosperity for pandemic recovery, digital transformation and innovation drive growth in the communities. Attending the ceremony was Mr. Tran Tuan Anh, Politburo member, Head of the Central Economic Commission, Mr. Huynh Thanh Dat, Member of the CPV Central Committee, Minister of Science and Technology, Mr. Nguyen Minh Vu, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, and representative leaders of a number of provinces and cities nationwide.

Mr. Tran Tuan Anh along with Binh Duong provincial leaders and delegates enter the conference. Photo: M.Duy

On the ICF side, Mr. Louis Zacharilla, Co-Founder of the ICF and representatives of some foreign cities and provinces in friendly cooperation relations with Binh Duong province such as Eindhoven of Netherlands, Daejeon City of Korea, Champasak of Laos, Kratie of Cambodia, representatives of Consulates General and Foreign Business Associations in Ho Chi Minh city and Binh Duong province have been at the ceremony.

Attending online around the world was Mr. Dana McDaniel, Mayor of Dublin in Ohio of USA and leadership representatives of the local members of the ICF.

On the side of Binh Duong province, Mr. Nguyen Van Loi, member of the CPV Central Committee, Secretary of the provincial Party Committee, Head of the provincial Delegation of the National Assembly, Mr. Vo Van Minh, Deputy Secretary of the provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the provincial People's Committee together with members of the Standing Committee of the provincial Party Committee, Deputy Chairmen and members of the provincial People's Committee, and heads of departments and divisions attended.

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Mr. Louis Zacharilla, Co-Founder of the ICF is delivering the opening speech. Photo: M.Duy

In the opening speech, Mr. Louis Zacharilla thanked the leaders of the povernment, ministries, central agencies and Binh Duong province for attending the honoring ceremony. At the same time, he congratulated Binh Duong province on its important achievements in socio-economic development over the past 25 years. Mr. Louis Zacharilla emphasized: “Binh Duong is one of the first smart communities in Vietnam. Developing a city in the digital age is not easy, but I believe Binh Duong with a rapid transformation roadmap will become a city of sustainable development. Technology helps us go faster. Innovation is coming very fast, which is allowing workers to be more creative to work in a better environment and to live better for people. Tonight's Top 7 honoring ceremony is a great event. ICF will continue to introduce to the world about Vietnam's achievements and tell the story of Binh Duong province."

The delegates attend the opening of the ICF conference. Photo: M.Duy

Speaking at the ceremony, Mr. Tran Tuan Anh said that building a smart city is one of the three key tasks of Vietnam in addition to the tasks of developing the digital economy and building an e-government. moving towards digital government as defined in Resolution No. 52-NQ/TW. In particular, smart cities in Vietnam are formed on basic criteria such as smart urban planning, smart economy, smart traffic, smart energy, smart residents, smart community management and smart society. The core ideology in building Vietnam's smart city is to take people as the center towards the goal so that everyone in society can enjoy the benefits and have the opportunity to participate in construction and monitoring of smart city management. So far, the results show that in Vietnam, 44 out of 63 provinces and cities directly under the central government have built smart urban development projects, of which, some localities have initially implemented smart urban construction that achieved many very positive results including Binh Duong province.

On behalf of the leaders of the CPV, the Head of the Central Economic Commission acknowledged, praised and highly appreciated the results of the economic and social development of Binh Duong province in general as well as in the construction and development of the province and smart city development in particular. Head of the Central Economic Commission highly appreciated Binh Duong for ICF's pioneering breakthrough approach to smart city construction. In particular, Binh Duong actively participates and integrates into the world community to show its initiative in local governance while ensuring compliance with the orientations, guidelines and policies of the CPV and State on smart city development. In particular, the head of the Central Economic Commission highly appreciated the province's implementation of a number of good models and practices in building smart cities such as applying the triple helix model or building a 5-layer model particularly in the project of Binh Duong Innovation Zone. The smart city development has made positive contributions to the overall socio-economic development achievements of Binh Duong province with impressive results.

The head of the Central Economic Commission asked Binh Duong in the coming time to always sustain the spirit of innovation and creativity, not to be satisfied with the results to overcome difficulties and challenges, limitations and inadequacies to closely adhere to the Party's viewpoints, guidelines and policies on urbanization and sustainable urban development in accordance with Resolution No. 06. It is to promote initiative, creativity, active participation of the business community and people population, international cooperation in organizing the implementation of the smart city project for 2021-2025; to successfully implement the goals of the 11th provincial Party Congress of 2020-2025 tenure. At the same time, it is necessary to focus on continuing to build an increasingly strong innovation ecosystem, bringing a better life and developing Binh Duong to a smarter, better and more livable place. The Head of the Central Economic Commission suggested that the ICF should be organized to keep on supporting Binh Duong in shaping and connecting more deeply with other members to exchange, learn and further improve the development model of the province. In Binh Duong, ICF will further spread ICF's approach to construct a smart community forum in Vietnam.

Speaking at the ceremony, Mr. Vo Van Minh, Chairman of the provincial People's Committee, said that joining the ICF helps Binh Duong learn many things from other members in the world; thereby, affirming and persevering with the orientation that Binh Duong authorities, people and businesses have chosen. Being honored by the ICF 4 times in a row in Smart-Top 21 and in 2021 honored and Top 7 cities with typical smart city development strategies, the choice and the approach of Binh Duong smart city project have been affirmed to be in line with the general trend of the world. In order to achieve such results, it is impossible not to mention the support and facilitation of the leaders of the CPV, the government, ministries, departments and central branches who have paid attention to and directed over the years, which have contributed to the orientation of the CPV, affirming that Binh Duong's development is consistent with the overall orientation of the nation.

Reported  by Phuong Le – Translated by Vi Bao