Today, Vietnam News reported that Ho Chi Minh (HCM) City will develop a blockchain infrastructure to aid its smart city transformation. The technology will be used to mitigate risk and streamline processes, an official said at the annual Hi-tech Park conference on Friday.
At the conference, it was revealed that the Vietnam government will promote and encourage blockchain. Trần Vĩnh Tuyến, VC of HCM City’s People’s Committee, said that the Ministry of Science and Technology will give priority to blockchain start-ups through a new project called ‘Support a National Innovative Start-up Ecosystem by 2025’.
“The city will give top priorities to projects that apply science and technology, especially the use of artificial intelligence in solving the city’s problems and for smart urban development,” Tuyến added.
Blockchain can be used in smart cities for communications, energy, transportation, and payments. The deputy director of the city’s Department of Information and Communications, Võ Thị Trung Trinh, also suggested public services and urban management as areas of application.
“To build a smart city, the city needs technology-based solutions to build a digital government,” she explained. Hence HCM City will begin work on regulations and policies regarding blockchain, to utilize it in the future.
Last week’s Hi-tech Park conference also saw the management board sign delays with HD King Technology and South Korean CBA Ventures for blockchain solutions. The firms will explore use cases in smart city development and personnel training, respectively.
Lê Bích Loan, acting head of the Hi-Tech Park’s board, was optimistic about the technology in finance: “The invention of blockchain has made financial transaction systems more efficient, transparent and simpler since online payments can be sent directly from one party to another without going through any intermediary organisations such as financial institutions, commercial banks or central banks.”
Blockchain and smart cities are considered a natural fit. Seoul has adopted the technology for managing traffic data from Internet of Things (IoT) sensors. The University of Nevada combined these technologies for autonomous car communications. Meanwhile, the Smart Dubai initiative has seen blockchain for reconciliation, company registration, and an e-government platform.
