Can Tho hopes to become a smart city by 2025 (Photo: VNA)Can Tho (VNA) – Can Tho, the most populated city in theMekong Delta region, aims to become the first smart city in the southwesternregion by 2025, according to Dao Anh Dung, Vice Chairman of the municipal People’sCommittee.
Dung said Can Tho has scored 66.78 out of 100 points in the City Prosperity Initiative(CPI) designed by UN-Habitat. The CPI measures how cities create and distribute socio-economic benefits orprosperity. UN-Habitat uses six categories to characterise urban prosperity: productivity,infrastructure development, quality of life, equity, social inclusion andenvironmental sustainability.
The CPI, which is a global initiative that provides an innovative approach tourban measurements, is meant to identify opportunities and potential areas ofintervention for cities to become more prosperous.
It collects information (data, indices and urban indicators) and transforms theinformation into knowledge, serving as the basis for the formulation of urbanevidence-based policies, city visions, and long-term action plans.
The CPI aims to produce meaningful information at the city level, to define alimited number of actions on the basis of its diagnosis, and to measure howpolicies affect the prosperity of the city. This information helps strengthencities’ monitoring and reporting capacities.
With its score of 66.78, Can Tho is likely to become a model urban area in thefuture if it strives to meet basic socio-economic indexes, according to Dung.
Dung said to achieve the goal of being a smart city, Can Tho would use moderninformation technology to serve the public and improve state management and thequality of life.
Can Tho would strive to adopt technological advances, and improvecompetitiveness and global integration, he said, adding that agencies were requested to promote energy savings and a pro-business environment,with a focus on infrastructure and policies.
Can Tho’s agencies have many plans to achieve their goals. The Department ofPlanning and Investment is building technical platforms to develop ane-government model, while the Department of Transport has started using IT tomanage urban transport services.
The long-term goal is to reduce traffic accidents, raise people’s awareness abouttraffic participation; reduce the risk of environmental pollution; improve theefficiency of overall planning and competitiveness, and attract investment inthe city, Dung noted.-VNA
VNA
