Taiwanese telco Chunghwa Telecom is helping Vietnam set up smart cities.

It has become a founding member of the Vietnam Smart City Consortium (VSCC) and signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to help create smart cities in Vietnam. The MoU was signed at last month’s Vietnam Smart City Future Conference in Ho Chi Minh City.

The event was for organisations in the field of smart city development to discuss, exchange and share their experience and methods to deploy smart city construction in the world, as well as apply those experiences or practices in Vietnam.

In Vietnam, the concept of smart cities or smart townships does not have a standard definition. Each smart city construction and development project has a different definition, as well as directions for organising activities, creativity and development in this field. This leads to a lack of consistency and creates many problems.

The City Operating System of CHT (CHTCityOS) – a smart governance platform developed by Chunghwa Telecom – can help solve the problems. It provides standard APIs that can connect with any system and integrates all information into one platform.

The CHTCityOS also provide dashboard functions, allowing users to monitor every corner of the city at any time. Along with event triggers and AI analysis, it can not only send various alarm events in real time, but also automatically active devices or programmes to improve urban security and smart energy-saving effects. This can give city managers accurate policy assistance, which is one of the most needed smart options for the development of smart cities in Vietnam.

The VSCC was founded initially based on a collaboration between Fundacion Metropoli and Dien Quang. Fundación Metropoli is a European company with experience in creating regional ecosystems for cities, urban landscapes, architecture and design. Dien Quang is a company that researches and develops smart technology products and services being applied widely in many fields.

The VSCC can leverage Chunghwa’s application experience in Taiwan on infrastructure, international services, broadband, internet and 5G smart services which can assist Vietnam in upgrading modern telecommunications technology.

In addition to providing the latest 5G smart technology, Chunghwa Telcom can also provide an overall service for optimising connection speed, efficient management and big data management. It is expected the three founding members will bring considerable contributions to Vietnamese cities, and the VSCC will continue to seek the support and cooperation of many organisations in the field of technology in Vietnam and countries around the world.

“It is a very important milestone for the VSCC to enhance and lead the strategic goal of Vietnam’s smart city development,” said Ho Quynh Hung from the VSCC. “It will become the core strength of the overall development of the city, while ensuring the efficiency and quality of each service. I am convinced it will definitely contribute to the digital transformation of local urban development.”

A statement from Chunghwa Telecom said: “It is expected that by joining the VSCC alliance, the scale of cooperation with partners from various countries will be effectively expanded, and the layout of smart city solutions in various countries will be enriched. The valuable experience in the development of smart cities in Taiwan has been extended to Vietnam. At the same time, with the help of VSCC’s practical experience in Vietnam’s overall architectural design and smart applications, it has joined hands with Chunghwa Telecom to develop more cooperation opportunities in Vietnam and continue to assist the vision of Vietnam’s smart city development. Let’s build a happy future for Vietnam together.”

Chunghwa Telecom is Taiwan’s largest integrated telecommunications services company that provides fixed-line, mobile, broadband and internet services. The company also provides information and communication technology services to corporate customers and is expanding its cloud computing services.