Da Nang sets economic goals towards 2030

Da Nang city's center area - Source: VNA

The goals were mentioned at a workshop held by the municipal People’s Committee on June 11 to discuss the city’s development by 2030 with a vision towards 2045.

The workshop gathered urban planners, economists and policy makers both at home and abroad. These experts shared hands-on experience from a number of local and foreign cities to give leaders of Da Nang a broader view of the city’s advantages, competitiveness, capacity to expand urban spaces in tandem with development of public transport, and how to build policies and raise capital for infrastructure development and develop the city sustainably.

To meet the achievements, Da Nang plans to achieve strong economic growth with breakthroughs by promoting Industry 4.0 and international integration; develop a local and regional hub for startups, innovation and creativeness; strive towards industrialisation and modernisation to motivate the growth and integration of the central and Central Highlands regions.

In addition, it will ensure social welfare, maintain defence, security, and marine sovereignty and have a civilised urban lifestyle.

Da Nang is a young city with an area of more than 1,280 sq. km., including the Hoang Sa (Paracel) island district’s area, and a population of about 1 million people. The city is blessed with about 92 km of coastline and 11 public beaches.

It looks to develop as a green, modern and smart city with unique identity.

To realize the goals, the city and FPT, a Vietnamese software giant, in April inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on building Da Nang as a ‘smart city’ for the 2018-20 period.

The MoU helps the city develop smart solutions in traffic, agriculture, English language training, health care and tourism.

The two sides also agreed to complete online service in traffic and agriculture to boost connection between the city’s administration and local residents, as well as to promote transparency in administrative procedure.

As planned, FPT will invest 15 billion VND (US$664,000) to build pilot projects with smart applications in 2018-19.

According to Vice Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee, Ho Ky Minh, the MoU will help Da Nang improve administrative reform and transparency for local people, businesses and tourists, and build Da Nang as a ‘liveable’ city in the near future.

He said the city’s e-government system, which was launched in 2014, had been used by 225 agencies and 4,000 users. About 50 percent of public procedures were also posted online.

He said Da Nang’s IT infrastructure was now available for smart connections among air control, water, garbage, meteorology, and energy agencies. It could also provide earthquake and tsunami warnings, and data on flooding, erosion, sewage management, and bridges.

The city will be ready for 4G LTE (Long-Term Evolution) this year.

The central city has provided 1,196 online administration procedures, including one-stop shops, residential management, public transport and water supervision through the e-government system.