Accelerating smart city construction towards sustainable development

This is an urgent requirement to concretise the Party and State’s policies and serves as a strategic leverage for the city to affirm its leading role and a key hub for digital transformation and sustainable development in the new context.

Strategic steps on a solid foundation

In early 2026, the Can Tho City People’s Committee issued Decision No. 323/QD-UBND approving the Smart City Development Project for the 2026–2030 period, with a vision to 2040. The project focuses on modernising infrastructure and applying artificial intelligence (AI) in administration, management, and public services for residents and businesses, aiming to achieve the dual goals of digital transformation and green transformation.

Nguyen Minh Hoang, Deputy Director of the city’s Department of Construction, said that in addition to the main project, the department had advised the issuance of a synchronised set of strategic documents and action plans, as well as the establishment of the Smart City Development Coordination Council. Notably, Can Tho is one of the first two centrally governed cities to establish the Coordination Council under the Government’s Decree No. 269/2025/ND-CP.

Under the Ministry of Construction’s sustainable smart city criteria, Can Tho has currently fulfilled three out of 16 criteria, including an online feedback reception system, public works ensuring accessibility for people with disabilities, and wastewater treatment meeting standards.

The city is actively implementing eight out of 16 level-one criteria in key areas such as urban planning based on GIS (Geographic Information System), real-time traffic safety monitoring, smart water network management, waste classification at source, integrated electronic health records, electronic payment accounts, security camera systems, and the establishment of a GIS database.

During the 2026–2030 period, the city aims to complete all level-one smart city criteria while striving to upgrade several key criteria to level two or higher and finalise unfinished tasks.

To realise these goals, the city has identified 59 specific tasks and projects with clearly assigned responsibilities for departments, sectors, and localities.

During the 2026–2027 period, priority will be given to implementing 21 key projects and tasks, particularly the development of core platforms, including information technology and communications architecture, urban databases, innovation infrastructure, smart and safe urban construction planning and management, and cybersecurity.

Notably, the application of an AI Agent ecosystem to support the operation of technical infrastructure and address urban bottlenecks such as water management, flood control, risk warning systems, smart traffic, and intelligent waste treatment.

Digital transformation activities are being strongly promoted across the city. In the healthcare sector, as of April 2026, 100% of medical facilities had connected electronic health records on the VNeID platform, implemented medical examination and treatment using citizen identity cards or VNeID, and applied electronic medical records, aiming to cover more than 95% of the population with electronic health records.

In the land sector, Can Tho is digitising 1.2 million land plots, while around 800,000 plots still lack information. The Department of Agriculture and Environment is updating and digitising to support smart urban governance.

Mobilising resources and removing bottlenecks

Smart city development is a new and complex field currently undergoing simultaneous piloting and implementation, with many areas lacking detailed regulations and guidance, creating difficulties in carrying it out.

The connection, sharing, and synchronisation of data between localities and central ministries and agencies also lack clear regulations, leading to inconsistencies in responsibilities and implementation procedures.

At present, the city’s shared database is still under construction. However, there is no specific guidance on integrating and exploiting inter-sectoral data, particularly lacking coordination regulations for building the city’s shared database, leaving some departments and sectors uncertain in implementation.

Moreover, the volume of data is enormous and dispersed across many sectors and fields, requiring a long time and substantial resources for digitisation, standardisation, synchronisation, and regular updating into the shared data warehouse.

Budget allocation remains limited, while the city has not established special mechanisms for public-private partnership policies in smart city development to attract investment. Human resources specialising in smart city development, digital transformation, and artificial intelligence applications also remain insufficient.

From a business perspective, Tran Van Binh, Deputy Director of Viettel Can Tho Branch under the Viettel Group, recommended that the city should prioritise the development of a shared database, which is the foundation and central hub for integrating and developing applications on a unified platform, helping avoid duplication, fragmentation, and waste of resources. Population and land databases, in particular, should be prioritised for cleaning and standardisation to connect with other sectors in building smart city management applications.

Truong Canh Tuyen, Chairman of the Can Tho City People’s Committee, stressed that smart city development is an inseparable part of the city’s digital transformation process.

He called on departments, sectors, and authorities at all levels to proactively propose initiatives and projects on databases, infrastructure, and human resources, while clearly identifying key tasks and completion timelines. He affirmed that the city is committed to allocating sufficient budget resources for smart city development and digital transformation so that these areas can become key driving forces to promote the rapid and sustainable growth of Can Tho in the coming years.

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