Fifteen teams from eight countries, including 2 Vietnamese teams, have been selected to present their smart city building solutions at the Demo Day of the Global Smart City Innovation Challenge for Viet Nam (SCIC) competition in November.

A view of Ho Chi Minh City (Photo: VNA)

The Mekong Business Initiative (MBI) opened the competition in July 2017, inviting entries suggesting solutions for challenges in developing smart cities in 12 fields specified by Viet Nam’s local administrations.

These fields are low-cost housing, efficient energy use, traffic management and smart parking, water drainage and waste management, urban agriculture, water treatment and clean water supply, public security and natural disaster monitoring, ecotourism and environment planning, health care, education, e-government, and trees and public space.

MBI Director Dominic Mellor said demand for innovative solutions to develop cities in Viet Nam has never been as big as now, with rapid growth and city dwellers’ surging demand outpacing infrastructure in cities.

SCIC will help Viet Nam access technologies and solutions already proving effective around the world. It will also help the country apply these solutions locally, he added.

This competition, sponsored by the Australian Government and the Asian Development Bank, attracted a total of 197 entries from more than 30 countries.

The 15 selected teams will present their solutions to authorised agencies and potential partners and investors in Viet Nam in Ha Noi on 12 and 13 November.

The best three teams will receive cash prizes and have the chance to take part in start-up acceleration programmes in Vietnamese cities to carry out their solutions.

(Source: VNA/ DA NANG Today)