Can smart cities have soul? In Vietnam, culture holds the key.

In this article for the Vietnam 2050: The vision ahead series, RMIT’s Associate Professor Kok Yoong Lim explains why the focus must shift to a holistic digital culture that upholds ethical values, cultural identity, and creative expression.

Digitisation of the modern Vietnamese society

Vietnam’s digital habits are evolving fast. From calling an electric taxi or paying bills via mobile apps, to checking neighbourhood updates through Zalo chat groups or using online public services, digital lifestyles are seamlessly woven into the Vietnamese urban experience.

The rapid progress of the digital society is largely thanks to widespread internet adoption. According to Statista, the number of internet users in Vietnam rose from 36 million in 2014 to 88 million in 2024, and is projected to surpass 100 million by 2027. But while digital access has grown, the creative economy lags behind, contributing just around 0.6 per cent of the national GDP in 2023. This signals vast untapped potential for growth in the sector.

Most smart city visions have focused on enhancing overall quality of life by leveraging technology – enabling faster transport, smarter systems, and more efficient services. However, without cultural depth, these visions risk becoming “technological shells” – efficient on the surface yet devoid of the humanity that makes cities truly liveable.

As Vietnam strives to become a digital society by 2030 and a high-income country by 2050, it has an opportunity to reimagine digital innovation not as technocratic progress but as a cultural act, preserving soul while building smarter infrastructure.

Digital culture as a foundation for smart cities

Digital culture goes beyond digitised content or creative industries. It is about the way people act, behave, engage, and form beliefs and values collectively with technologies in digital environments. It is also about how culture and heritage are preserved and integrated into the digital ecosystem. Yet within current smart city strategies, cultural digitisation has received relatively little attention.

The success of Vietnam’s smart city agenda hinges not solely on top-down technological deployment, but on bottom-up cultural adaptation and citizen-driven innovation. Smart cities must be designed for data efficiency as well as the human experience, ensuring technology enhances – not erases – local identities, creative agency, and cultural meaning. Otherwise, people may feel disconnected from the very systems designed to serve them, like living in a place that’s intelligent, but indifferent.

We already have cultural assets to build from. Three Vietnamese cities are recognised in the UNESCO Creative Cities Network: Hanoi for design, Hoi An for crafts and folk art, and Da Lat for music. The local creative digital art scene is burgeoning, with interdisciplinary collaborations forming.

Vietnamese people are also known for their everyday ingenuity. Take the motorcycle culture that defines its urban life: what looks chaotic to outsiders is, in fact, a deeply adaptive and creative system of self-organisation. It reflects how citizens navigate, negotiate, and repurpose infrastructure to suit their lived realities. This phenomenon exemplifies the creative resilience in Vietnam. 

Investing in creative people and creative technology

Most smart city discourse today remains narrowly focused on “technologising” essential infrastructure and services, giving rise to tech-infused buzzwords such as FinTech, GovTech, EduTech, and HealthTech. Crucially absent in many national and regional strategies is an articulation of ArtTech or CultureTech – domains that nourish identity, culture, creativity, and belonging.

A truly inclusive smart society should therefore move beyond infrastructure toward “infrastructures of meaning”. In a society full of algorithms, it’s the storytellers, artists and designers who will help people feel connected.  What will make Vietnam stand out is not just its digital transformation, but its commitment to keeping the human element at the centre. After all, a truly smart city is a people-centred city.

In this regard, educational institutions like RMIT play an instrumental role, helping Vietnam’s young and tech-savvy generation emerge not just as passive digital citizens, but culturally conscious co-creators of the country’s digital future.

What’s perhaps most exciting about Vietnam’s potential is its capacity to dream boldly while staying rooted. It is a place where culture meets microchip, where youthful energy reanimates age-old wisdom. The smart society we build by 2050 will have digital artists who are cultural translators, storytellers who are fluent in code, tech innovators who are poets, curators who dream in algorithm, and ethnographers who can build digital heritage.

Young creatives should embrace their important role in this future. By building interdisciplinary capabilities and cultural sensibilities right now, they can make meaningful contribution to the future with their storytelling, design, and imagination.

-----

Vietnam 2050: The vision ahead is a thought leadership series powered by RMIT Vietnam’s academic experts, exploring what Vietnam could become over the next 25 years. Each article unpacks potential major shifts – from smart cities and education to tech and entrepreneurship – offering bold predictions and practical ideas for a future-ready nation. Discover more insights here.

Story: Associate Professor Kok Yoong Lim – Deputy Dean, Research & Innovation, School of Communication & Design, RMIT University Vietnam