Officials of Thua Thien Hue Intelligent Operations Center (HueIOC) receive feedback from the people.

Listening to the people

3 years ago, HueIOC based on the smart city solution platform of Viettel Military Telecom Group piloted the simultaneous development of 10 smart city monitoring services.

It is the scene reflection; a set of urban surveillance camera solutions (monitoring traffic violations; monitoring urban order; monitoring urban safety; synthesizing and supporting traffic planning and development); warning information; monitoring local press information; electronic cards of civil servants and officials; supervising public administrative services; supervising electronic advertisement; monitoring environment;  monitoring information safety; monitoring fishing boats.

Among them, the scene reflection is widely interacted. Through the channel of scene reflection, the people are the subjects who make direct suggestions on the negative or deficient aspects in social life to the government by smartphone or through the website.

Now, one service alone helps to change the people's awareness. “Illegal parking, littering and other daily negative habits are all monitored, especially by the people themselves. After the public authorities’ verification, there will be specific sanctions. That makes every person more self-aware in life, closer to a civilized society,” said Mr. Hoang Quoc Dao (Hue City).

In the process of building the smart city in the province, technologies, services or surveillance camera systems are widely talked about, but the people themselves are the most effective "cameras" like the extension arm of the government. From the people's feedback, the government makes a change in a more positive way. According to the statistics on the people’s satisfaction after the feedback, about 80% of the people claim that the government is making a change.

Compared with other provinces and cities, although the potential is not strong, the province has found a suitable model. Based on the inheritance, the smart city is integrated with many smart services on the technological platform. The people and businesses apply information technology to their life and operations, thereby making timely adjustments.

According to the leader of the Department of Information and Communications, the smart city is always in the people-centered spirit of listening to and interacting with the people and businesses. Any service has a connection and solves the problems of society and people, in which technology plays an important role.

Position enhanced

Hue’s change today stems from many factors, but the very shape of a smart city with modern civilization and cultural identity changes Hue's position in the eyes of many people. Tourists and businesses have a more positive view on Hue.

During the COVID-19 outbreak, the smart city services contribute to helping the local government bring the pandemic under control. In that context, investors' confidence in Hue is further strengthened when the relevant agencies in localities renew work, management and administration, typically, the online investment promotion methods for key markets and projects.

In addition, the province promulgated many mechanisms, policies and solutions for foreign investment, thereby creating the best and open conditions for investment activities, contributing to the attraction of investors to Hue. Currently, the province has 112 foreign direct investment projects with a total registered investment capital of nearly 4 billion USD.

According to Mr. Bui Hoang Minh, HueIOC Director, the future development of the smart city continues to be from the people-centered and business-motivated viewpoint. Apart from the investment in infrastructure, HueIOC continues to upgrade and perfect the operation process to ensure synchronism and closeness, implement 100% on the network environment through the concurrence and electronic data-centered mechanism.

The province's ICT Architecture Framework for Smart City Development in 2021-2025 is implemented according to a 2-step roadmap. In the first 2 years, the basic items are developed to serve the entire smart city service system of the province and serve the development of prior smart city services. In the following years, the items will be developed to serve the large-scale development of smart city services in the fields identified in the province's ICT Architecture Framework for Smart City Development with version 1.0.

“We continue to aim to keep abreast with the trend, make the best of the strength of the mobile platform and build a communication method in the digital environment, which is one of the important tasks to soon form a digital society. Hue-S is a super app on smart mobile devices. Hue-S is developed with the goal of taking the people as the center, integrating all information, services and utilities in order to fully meet the needs in the life and activities of the people and the entire society. Hue-S also aims to build a connection platform of the "digital society," said Mr. Bui Hoang Minh.

Story and photo: Le Tho