Hanoi (VNA) - With the strongdevelopment of science and technology, some localities in Vietnam are in a rushto make changes and become smart cities.

According to a United Nations report released inNovember 2018, the e-government development index of Vietnam had risen fiveplaces in the past five years, making Vietnam one the top countries fore-government development.

The northern province of Bac Ninh is one of thelocalities making efforts to shift from a traditional urban model to a smartcity model. Nguyen Viet Hung, director of the provincial Department ofInformation and Communications, said the key issue was to convert itsadministrative system to a smart government.

Bac Ninh plans to convert to e-government byapplying information and technology (IT) in administrative management, thenconvert from e-government to an open government before completing thetransition to a smart government in the last phase.

In the central region, Thua Thien - Hue provincehas been one of the pioneers towards becoming a smart city closely linked withe-government.

Phan Ngoc Tho, Chairman of the provincial People’sCommittee said they had focused on building the project to develop a smart cityby 2020 with a vision to 2025 by applying IT to resolve transport, healthcare,education, tourism and environment issues. This gave people easier access topublic services.

Tho said they had put people at the centre of theproject and businesses as the momentum for developing a smart city.

Ho Chi Minh City is also considering building adigital government to manage a smart city.

Duong Anh Duc, Director of the city’s Departmentof Information and Communications, said they would focus on implementing ane-government architecture by 2020. It targeted to provide better publicservices and simplify paperwork for people, businesses and organisations.

The National Committee on e-Government wasestablished with the aim to directly serve people and firms.

The Government this year targeted to complete anational system of collated documents towards a national digital integrationand data sharing platform and operating e-Cabinet. It also planned to launch anational public service portal connecting existing portals of ministries andlocalities across the country.

Minister-Chairman of the Office of the GovernmentMai Tien Dung said the Government had taken drastic measures in digitaltransformation to create the best environment for business development. Therefore,the Government needed businesses to accompany it in the process.

A country must have a team of businesses that wereable to compete vigorously and lead the community. However, digitaltransformation was revolutionary and when conducting a revolution, the changemust start with leaders, he added.-VNA