Top three smart city solutions for Vietnam announced

The top three winners of the Global Smart City Innovation Challenge for Vietnam (SCIC) competition, launched by the Mekong Business Initiative (MBI), were announced at the Vietnam Demo Day in Hanoi, on November 13.

The GridComm team wins the first prize.

The US$5,000 first prize was awarded to the GridComm team for their solution “Smart street lights for cities”, which, as released by GridComm Director General Mike Holt, would contribute to remarkably reducing the power consumption in cities.

The establishment of this infrastructure would enable Vietnam to implement other projects in regards to smart cities, such as faster and easier traffic management or urban planning, Holt added.

The second prize, worth US$3,000, went to the XRVision team with their solution “Facial recognition software in uncontrolled environments”. Guy Ron, Director General of XRVision, used to work for Microsoft and has experience from setting up the security system in Israel.

MimosaTek, a Vietnamese team, claimed the US$2,000 third prize for their high-tech agriculture startup on providing an irrigation solution for crops.

MimosaTek Director Nguyen Khac Minh Tri summarised the profound meaning of a smart city as a place where people could take advantage of technology to enjoy a more convenient and effective lifestyle.

In addition to the cash prizes, the three winning teams will be fast-tracked into the cities’ acceleration programmes to help localise their solutions.

The SCIC competition is a unique initiative aiming to discover global technology solutions with the potential of handling urban issues in provinces and cities across Vietnam.

The Demo Day in Hanoi, on November 13, took place with 15 innovative urban solutions presented by 15 teams from eight countries, in the presence of the leaders of groups, investors and businessmen, as well as representatives from Vietnam’s smart city steering committees and local government leaders.

The Demo Day was organised by the MBI, in cooperation with The National Agency for Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialisation Development (NATEC-MOST), the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Science and Technology, the Da Nang Business Incubator (DNES) and the Vietnam Angel Investor Network (iAngel).

MimosaTek is the only Vietnamese prize winning team.

VNF/NDO