DaNang (VNA) - United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representativein Vietnam Caitlin Wiesen applauded Da Nang for its commitment to its growth asa smart, innovative and thriving city.

Wiesenspoke at a seminar to introduce the City Lab initiative in the central city onNovember 26, stating that UNDP commits to support Da Nang towards becoming acity for People, Planet and Prosperity.

TheCity Lab initiative is the very first step to implement a Memorandum ofUnderstanding signed by UNDP and the city earlier this month.

“A keyquestion to address across all the planned innovations is how to support thecity to be more agile, adaptive and anticipatory. This includes identifying howbest to embed innovation methods and practices in the city to sustainablytackle social and public issues,” Wiesen said.

ViceChairman of the municipal People’s Committee Ho Ky Minh said: “Trafficplanning; environment and waste management; smart city; sustainable tourismdevelopment; innovation; and e-Government are the matters of interest to DaNang in its urban development process.”

As partof its commitment to support City Lab exchange among city networks, UNDP hasorganised the mission of Gabriella Gomez-Mont, former founder and director ofthe Mexico City Lab. She is a member of the international advisory committeefor the mayor of Seoul, fellow of MIT, Yale, Harvard, and named one of the 100most creative people in business by Fast Company magazine.

Shepresented many excellent examples on emerging city strategies around gettingorganised for ‘night time’, including how Mexico City got its public bus systemorganised for 3 million night commuters.

“Themore ideas, resources and information flows openly across different sectors,the more innovative the city will be,” Gomez-Mont said.

“In themeetings with Da Nang, there is a huge potential for City Lab to help solveurban challenges and make the city a reference of what is possible in the Asiancontext," she added.

Leadersof relevant departments of Da Nang agreed that urban challenges can no longerbe solved by the Government alone. They are thrilled to learn from the greatexamples of Mexico City Lab on how to prototype collaborative practices andcatalyse citizen talent to create an innovative and resilient Da Nang.

Le SonPhong, Deputy Director of Da Nang’s Department of Information andCommunication, noted the challenges in the building of a smart city, includingthe lack of skills, results measurement and how to respect the privacy ofcitizens. He said the City Lab was a good idea as it would allow solutions tobe found for pressing issues.

“TheUNDP-supported Chatbot is very effective, helping to reduce the number of staffwhile increasing the reliability of the information for citizens,” Phong said.

“DaNang is keen to move on with this initiative to the next level."

Wastemanagement is one of the most pressing issues in the city, with wasteincreasing by 18-20 percent annually.

TheUNDP Regional Innovation Centre in Asia and the Pacific, UNDP in Vietnam andAlberta CoLab of Canada held a systemic design workshop with local and nationalgovernment and business partners to build human-centred understanding of wastesystems in Da Nang to fight plastic pollution and promote a circular economy.

UNDPalso helped strengthen the impact of a public administration reform project inthe city in 2012-2016.

Da Nangis planning to become a ‘smart city’ and the first in Vietnam to join the ASEAN‘smart’ city network by 2030.

It wasthe first city in Vietnam to launch an e-Government system in 2014, andtransferred the system to 16 cities and provinces in 2016.

Accordingto a report, Da Nang’s e-Government system has been used by 225 agencies and4,000 users.

Da Nanghas provided 1,200 online administration procedures, including one-stop shops,residential management, public transport and water supervision through thee-Government system, while free wireless internet services offer a maximum of20,000 connections in public places, according to the city’s information andcommunications department./.