Nghe An and VNPT Group discuss cooperation in developing smart cities

(Baonghean.vn) - After 3 years of cooperation with initial achievements, VNPT Group wishes to cooperate in consulting and building smart urban solutions for Nghe An province.

Conference scene. Photo: Thu Giang

This is the content proposed at the conference to review 3 years of implementing the strategic cooperation agreement on telecommunications and information technology for the period 2014-2020 and propose cooperation in developing smart cities between Nghe An Provincial People's Committee and VNPT Group.

Looking back at 3 years of strategic cooperation

On September 13, 2014, the People's Committee of Nghe An province signed a strategic cooperation agreement on Telecommunications and Information Technology for the 2014-2020 period with the Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT), demonstrating its determination to implement Resolution 26 of the Politburo on building Nghe An into an industrial and technological center of the North Central region. After 3 years of implementation, the cooperation agreement has achieved many outstanding results in various fields. In particular, in the field of IT application, VNPT Nghe An has successfully coordinated to deploy the electronic one-stop system and the online public service portal (VNPT-iGate) to 16 provincial departments, branches and sectors, 21 district-level People's Committees and 480 commune and ward People's Committees across the province. After 7 months of operation, the electronic One-Stop System has had more than 143,380 records updated, circulated and processed on the system, an average of nearly 1,000 records/day.

VNPT is also coordinating with the province to deploy the Document Management and Administration System (VNPT-iOffice) for all agencies, units, communes and wards across the province, expected to officially operate from September 1, 2017, ensuring the requirement of connecting documents at 4 levels, ensuring progress earlier than the Government's requirements.

Provincial Party Secretary Nguyen Dac Vinh delivered a speech at the conference. Photo: Thu Giang

Smart urban development trends

At the conference, Mr. Huynh Quang Liem - Deputy General Director of VNPT Group presented a proposal to cooperate with Nghe An to develop smart cities. Presenting VNPT's viewpoint on building smart cities, Mr. Liem - Deputy General Director of VNPT Group emphasized 7 principles: "First, closely follow the development orientation of the Government, suitable for the characteristics of the province. Second, take people as the center. Third, building smart cities needs to refer to prominent trends, summarize practical experiences in the world. Fourth, clearly identify solutions that can be deployed immediately, soon bringing benefits to people, businesses and the government. Fifth, build on a modern, synchronous technology platform. Sixth, ensure synchronization between technology and non-technology solutions such as legal, communication, ... And finally, establish an open platform, open data to encourage businesses and people to participate".

Speaking at the conference, Provincial Party Secretary Nguyen Dac Vinh reaffirmed that Nghe An has been identified by the Politburo as the center of the North Central region, so the locality hopes that the telecommunications and IT infrastructure will gradually meet the requirements of a connection center. “In the development strategy, Nghe An hopes that VNPT will continue to pay attention, and work with the province to upgrade telecommunications and IT infrastructure, ensuring the quality of communications and related services, because these contents not only serve Nghe An but also the entire North Central region,” emphasized comrade Nguyen Dac Vinh.

Smart cities are a trend being applied in many major cities around the world. Illustration photo: Internet

Regarding VNPT's proposal for cooperation in developing smart cities, the Secretary of Nghe An Provincial Party Committee noted: “Previously, the approach was often to create a project, hire software writers, and then adjust it - an old and ineffective method... Side A, the administrative side, did not understand much about technology, and despite trying, put the project in a vague state. Side B - the IT side, has the strength of writing software, but does not have much experience in management, operation and administrative services, so it also relies heavily on side A. Both combined to create products that are not very successful.”

From there, the head of Nghe An Provincial Party Committee pointed out a more modern approach, which is to attract experts with experience in public administration, professional management, etc., to give opinions and units to produce products and services to meet the needs and continuously upgrade them.

He also affirmed that building a smart city is what Nghe An is doing, but it needs to invest and upgrade more systematically on the basis of the existing management and operation system. In response to VNPT's proposal, Provincial Party Secretary Nguyen Dac Vinh said that it is necessary to conduct a survey and re-evaluate the response capacity of infrastructure in Nghe An, and suggested that VNPT cooperate to help the province orient its future development.

“If this problem is solved, Nghe An will lead, manage, and operate more effectively. Applying machinery and technology will make everything more responsive, people will be more sympathetic, and businesses will see more efficiency, clarity, and transparency,…”, Comrade Nguyen Dac Vinh hopes.

Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Xuan Duong delivered a concluding speech at the conference. Photo: Thu Giang

Spearheading the implementation of Resolution 26 of the Politburo

Concluding the conference, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Xuan Duong highly appreciated the positive, comprehensive and initially effective results in the five areas of cooperation between VNPT and Nghe An in the past time. However, compared to the potential and strengths of Nghe An and VNPT, the application of IT in the province requires further development in the current context.

“Therefore, in the orientation of socio-economic development in the coming time, Nghe An will continue to consider the application and development of IT as one of the key priorities, creating a spearhead for the foundation to build Nghe An into an IT center in the North Central region, successfully building e-Government in Nghe An, contributing to the successful implementation of Resolution 26 of the Politburo”, Comrade Nguyen Xuan Duong emphasized.

The head of Nghe An Provincial People's Committee also reaffirmed the commitment to continue to coordinate and create the most favorable conditions for VNPT to implement cooperation contents to ensure quality and progress.

At the same time, to achieve the above goal, the leaders of the Provincial People's Committee requested VNPT to support consulting and building smart urban solutions for Nghe An, requesting provincial departments and branches to coordinate with localities to advise the Provincial People's Committee on the technology architecture framework, propose the implementation of a number of smart urban solutions to serve the project preparation, submit to competent authorities for approval, and serve as a basis for implementation.

On this occasion, the program "Fostering Vietnamese Talents" of VNPT Group awarded 500 million VND to poor students who strive to excel in their studies in Nghe An province.

Thu Giang