Last Friday, a group of Da Nang’s leaders, led by municipal People’s Committee Vice Chairman Dang Viet Dung, attended the 5^th Asian Smart City seminar in Japan’s Yokohama City.

The seminar in progress

The seminar featured some discussions about the best ways to manage smart cities in Asian, the private sector’s technologies and solutions in developing smart cities, financial preparations for the development of smart cities, and how to manage knowledge about smart cities.

During the event, representatives from cities in which ‘smart city’ projects have been implemented shared their valuable experience and technological solutions in effectively deploying these projects.  They discussed the upgrading of information technology (IT) and hi-tech infrastructure, the application of IT, the implementation of environmental protection activities, and raising public awareness about building a successful and sustainable smart city.

As for Da Nang, Vice Chairman Dung presented a report entitled ‘Da Nang-Yokohama Cooperation towards Sustainable Development’. 

During his report, Mr Dung remarked “The Da Nang-Yokohama diplomatic ties were established in April 2013 based on the spirit of building together sustainable cities with ideal living environments and competitive economies.  As a result, my city has learned a lot from the valuable experiences of Yokohama in dealing with pressing urban-related issues and environmental pollution.  In return, Yokohama had the opportunity to assist Japanese businesses investing in Da Nang.”

He noted that Da Nang and Yokohama successfully organised 4 forums about developing plans to make Da Nang a key economic hub in the central region.  In addition, Yokohama assisted Da Nang in implementing some important projects relating to the environment, safe water, and the port.

The city leader underlined that Da Nang would apply Yokohama’s technologies and its experiences to its key projects in the future.  Included are improvements to the water environment, the building of the Hoa Lien Commune water supply plant based on the public-private partnership (PPP) model, and the relocation of the city's railway station.

On the sidelines of the seminar, Mr Dung met with leaders of Yokohama’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Investment.  They discussed solutions to tighten their bilateral cooperation in the years ahead.

Previously, the Da Nang leaders had met with representatives from JGC Corporation which specialises in the oil, gas, design, infrastructure construction and medical sectors.

On behalf of the local leaders, Vice Chairman Dung highly appreciated the Japanese corporation’s projects for successful operation in Viet Nam.  He said that he would like the Japanese Corporation to invest in the city’s priority aspects such as healthcare and industrial infrastructure aspects.

In reply, the Manager of the Corporation’s Infrastructure Project Division, Mr Yasuharu Yamaguchi, had praised Da Nang for its great efforts in renewing its investment promotion methods.  He highlighted that JGC would implement a project in Da Nang next year.

The visiting group worked with the Pronexus Group, the Toyota Mobility Foundation, and the Almec Corporation in order to appeal for them to invest in the city.