South Korean cloud delivery platform company, Bespin is working with Daewoo subsidiary THT Development to establish a smart city joint venture in Vietnam.

Bespin and THT have signed a memorandum of understanding for establishing the joint venture at the Integrated Command & Control Center in Starlake City in Hanoi, Vietnam.

The joint venture will be in charge of the operation and management of a data-based smart city in Starlake in the future. In addition, it will focus on establishing a decision support system and developing a business model based on various element technology data generated within the smart city. Element technology data refer to the technology applied to each element and the data generated from the technology so the capabilities of a smart city can be properly implemented.

This includes autonomous driving, smart energy, smart grid, air quality measurement, water quality management, AR and VR-based construction learning, building information management, smart construction, and green area operation and management.

In addition to the data generated in Starlake, the venture will continue to create values based on data generated from various business activities such as collaboration with smart city technology start-ups and tech companies to attract cooperation projects with Korean and Vietnamese government agencies and major Vietnamese infrastructure companies and smart city related projects.

Through this agreement, Bespin will be able to secure the long-term operation and investment foundation of the smart city data integrated management platform. In addition, while enhancing platform development and operation capabilities, it plans to commercialise and expand businesses in Vietnam. THT Development has the experience to manage smart city operations and will expand and support new business projects based on this.

The two companies plan to build close cooperation based on their core capabilities and technologies. Bespin focuses on establishing business strategy and platforms for Vietnam Smart City 2.0, building an open innovation platform, attracting smart city technology companies, establishing and operating data-based smart city operation and management, empowering data integration, and building a cloud-based foundation based on digital transformation expertise.

TH Development introduced a data-based smart city operation system in Starlake and fosters Starlake as a proof-of-concept demonstration complex that reviews and applies various smart city technologies. In addition, it plans to make efforts to provide joint ventures and partners with opportunities to participate in various projects.

The MoU signing ceremony took place with the participation of Hoon Park, co-founder of Bespin Global, Ted Kim, general manager of Bespin Global in Vietnam, Seung Han, senior vice president of Daewoo, and An Kuk-jin, general director of THT Development.

“With the signing of this agreement and the establishment of a joint venture, we have taken the first step towards creating a data-based smart city beyond the smart city stage that reflects some of the existing element technologies,” said Seung Han. “We will do our best to establish smart city operation joint venture and lead related projects successfully to become a best practice for the smart city standard model that generates substantial profits, and Daewoo Engineering & Construction will serve as a priming water for the expansion of the smart city industry, a new future food.”

Hoon Park added: “Through this agreement, Bespin Global’s goal is not only to operate and manage smart city data, but also to help digital native start-ups and tech companies enter the smart city data platform and continue to create a convergence business model. As the data platform is the basis for implementing smart city element technology, we will lead the future of cities and infrastructure with Bespin Global’s digital transformation expertise.”

Starlake is a new city development project independently created by Daewoo Engineering & Construction in the central area of Hanoi. Bespin Global and THT Development jointly developed and operated a smart city data integration management platform last year, and recently signed an MoU with Hanoi Electric Power to introduce a pilot infrastructure applied with AMI in Starlake.