About SSC

Overview

With the rapid urbanisation and its related sustainability challenges, developing smart and sustainable cities is at the forefront of urban development and planning. RMIT’s Smart and Sustainable Cities (SSC) Hub focuses on multidisciplinary research to provide theoretical and practical knowledge, urban innovations, and strategic management recommendations to stakeholders across key industry segments, public sector organizations and non-governmental organisations working towards smart and sustainable cities transformation in Vietnam and Asian countries.

RMIT’s SSC engages and collaborates with the businesses and government agencies in smart and sustainable cities that are in line with the national development strategy. The national program is specified by Prime Ministerial Decision 950, which approved the development of smart sustainable cities in Vietnam for the period of 2018 and 2025 with a vision to 2030. The National Programme for Digital Transformation aims to “develop a digital government, digital economy, and digital society and to establish Vietnamese digital technology enterprises capable of going global” (Prime Minister of Vietnam, 2020). RMIT Vietnam has signed an MOU with the People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City to support building smart infrastructure and initiatives for the City. Additionally, RMIT is also actively engaged with some Key State-Owned Enterprises businesses (such as Vietnam Airlines,...) on their digital transformation journey.

Building on these insights and developments, we organized an annual SSC Forum on “how smart urban development is critically linked to the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)”. The SSC Forum seeks to inform participants on key aspects to set the development agenda of the cities in the right direction. The key themes of the SSC Forum focus on sustainably developing Vietnam’s urban centres.

Topics

Smart cities and the link to United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals

Block Chain Innovations

Liveable Cities from The Australian Urban Observatory

Government vision for smart & sustainable development

Benchmarking progress of smart city development

Moving towards a “Digital Vietnam”

Smart tourism, governance, and logistics

Sustainable waste management & plastic pollution

Smart City solutions for Climate Change

Where Sustainability and Smart Cities Meet

The International Telecommunication Union (2016) introduced a definition for smart sustainable cities which as follows: “A Smart Sustainable City is an innovative city that uses Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and other means to improve quality of life; efficiency of urban operation and services; and competitiveness; while ensuring that it meets the needs of present and future generations with respect to economic; social; environmental as well as cultural aspects”. Accordingly, a smart city is not only the adoption of digital technologies to improve the quality of life for its citizens, but also has to integrate global best practices and standards to allow for decisions leading to a long-term sustainable future. The United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals provide the goals and targets and transparently share those best practices for world leaders. Technology alone does not make cities smart, livable and sustainable; it also takes intelligent leadership drawing from the best available knowledge. A smart sustainable city is defined across six dimensions; namely; Smart Economy; Smart Environment; Smart Governance; Smart Living; Smart Mobility; and Smart People (Giffinger et al., 2007).

Key Legal and Policy Documents

31 Mar 2022

Decision: 411/QD-TTg

National strategy for developing a digital economy and digital society by 2025, with a vision to 2030

25 Mar 2021

Decision: 438/QĐ-TTg

Development of climate-smart cities for the period of 2021-2030

08 Feb 2022

Decision: 167/QD-TTg

Sustainable development in the private sector

25 Sep 2020

Resolution: 136/NQ-CP

Sustainable development in Vietnam

03 June 2020

Decision: 749/QD-TTg

National program on digital transformation until 2025, with a vision to 2030

13 Sep 2019

Document: 3098/BTTTT-KHCN

Vietnam Smart City Index, for the period up to 2025 (version 1.0)

01 Aug 2018

Decision: 950/QD-TTg

Development of smart sustainable city in Vietnam for the period of 2018–2025, with a vision to 2030

23 Nov 2017

Decision: 6179/QD-UBND

Building Ho Chi Minh City into a smart city in the period of 2017–2020, with a vision to 2025

25 Sep 2012

Decision: 1393/QD-TTg

National Green Growth Strategy for the period of 2011-2020, with a vision to 2050

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