The Da Nang People’s Committee, in collaboration with the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), held a ceremony on Friday to kick-start the Integrated Centre for Controlling Green and Smart Urban Resilience Project (ENSURE Centre) in this central Vietnamese city.

Da Nang People's Committee Vice Chairman Tran Phuoc Son (left) addressing the launching ceremony of the ENSURE Centre project. Photo: HOANG HIEP

The project, which is expected to be complete in 2025, will cover a total investment of VND259.3 billion, of which the non-refundable ODA from the Government of the Republic of Korea (RoK) government through KOICA is more than VND246.8 billion and the rest is from the Da Nang budget’s reciprocal capital.

Once operational, the ENSURE Centre will be the first role model in Viet Nam with various functions of integration of emergency calls, information sharing between emergency response agencies (police, firefighting, health care, civil service), disaster monitoring through hi-tech systems, and the provision of disaster response scenarios, and training on disaster response.

Through the ENSURE Centre project, Da Nang aims to early recognise and warn of natural disasters, forecast their developments, improve the capacity of its disaster forecast and response, provide timely and accurate information and notifications to the community for active prevention, and promote green urban restoration.

In the face of climate change and the increasingly serious effects caused by natural disasters, the ENSURE Centre is particularly important for Da Nang, and the whole central region at large.

Also, the project helps Da Nang reach its ambitious target of becoming into a smart city by 2030 synchronously connecting with the network of smart cities in the country and in the ASEAN region.
With the support and cooperation of Deagu City government, since 2016, Da Nang has built project documents for the ENSURE Centre.

In 2018, the Ministry of Planning and Investment reviewed and put the ENSURE Center onto the list of projects to be sent to KOICA to promote aid.

Da Nang People's Committee Vice Chairman Tran Phuoc Son thanked the RoK government and KOICA for paying great attention to Da Nang through its grants to the ENSURE Centre project and spoke highly of the support from the Daegu government for the Vietnamese city during the successful promotion of the project.

According to Director of KOICA Viet Nam Cho Han-deog, although there have been many individual projects on disaster response in Viet Nam - one among the countries vulnerable to climate change, this is a particularly significant project because it provides a comprehensive solution to integrated monitoring of natural disasters.

Mr. Ahn Min-sik, the RoK Consul General in Da Nang expressed his delight at the starting of the project, adding that this is a practical activity towards the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Viet Nam and the RoK.

Through the project in Da Nang, it is hoped that the RoK will expand cooperation activities in central Viet Nam, and in the time to come, more RoK businesses will seek investment opportunities in this Vietnamese region in IT and smart city building projects.

Reporting by HOANG HIEP – Translating by A.THU