Chairman of the Thua Thien - Hue provincial People’s Committee Phan Ngoc Tho

Reporter: Can you tell us how the smart city model of Thua Thien - Hue province has been implemented?

The Thua Thien - Hue Smart City Monitoring and Operation Center

Reporter: What role does this center play?

Mr. Phan Ngoc Tho: This center helps the provincial leaders and localities operate and coordinate services; thus far, the service with the highest rate of interaction with the people has been the incident reporting service. People can reflect and make recommendations on fixing shortcomings to the authorities directly via their smartphones or the center’s website. People can attach photos and videos and send them to the authorities. The feedback will be recorded and transferred to the authorities for consideration. The process is reported and posted online, which allows people to track progress in real time.

Urban monitoring services implemented via cameras have also actively influenced changes in the province. The camera system installed in the province transfers data to the center. The center analyzes and issues warnings. Then, the center checks and verifies the levels of warning and assists the police or responsible agencies to handle the situations.

At present, there are 85 pisions responsible for handling online feedback sent to the center. They are all the functional agencies under the provincial People’s Committee, all district People’s Committees, and all the wards in Hue city. Besides, they also include a number of central agencies located in the province and important agencies of the provincial People’s Committee.

Reporter: What has the feedback been like for the services?

Mr. Phan Ngoc Tho: Currently, more than 10 services have been implemented, in which the feedback for the incident reporting service from local people and tourists has been extremely positive. Through fixed cameras and local people who report, when a problem is detected, the information will be relayed via an application called Hue-S. The information is then transmitted to the monitoring center for screening and then transferred to the authorities to handle.

Cameras installed on Truong Tien Bridge in Hue City

Reporter: So when will Hue city become a smart city?

Mr. Phan Ngoc Tho: For 10 years now, Hue city has gone through three stages to complete this system, including the appealing for the system, the development of the regulations and fines, and the requirements devised for the staff. We are now in the middle of the second and third stages. Every day, officials of Hue city's agencies spend hours working on Hue-S and Hue-G systems.

In the draft of the Ministry of Information and Communications, the smart city model of Hue city serves as an example for other provinces to follow. We are also striving to continuously improve this model by mobilizing social resources. Database and applications are required to operate the center successfully. If Hue city is a living body, then the center serves as the heart; applications are the blood vessels; and databases are vitamins. It can take about 3 years to complete the system. Then, Hue city will be the first complete smart city in Vietnam.

Reporter: Why did Thua Thien - Hue province choose Viettel Group to build a smart city system?

Mr. Phan Ngoc Tho: Viettel is a leading corporation in Vietnam. We think that working and receiving technologies from a leading enterprise is the hope of many localities, not just Thua Thien - Hue. I highly appreciate Viettel in taking in our suggestions and wishes to devise appropriate solutions.

The close coordination between Viettel and Thua Thien - Hue has created substantial effects. Viettel wants to build the Thua Thien - Hue smart city system as a model for Vietnam. I think that the smart city monitoring and operation system and the e-government will be merged into one some day and this system will develop completely and become an effective management tool for the provincial People’s Committee.