Ho Chi Minh City Plans Comprehensive Survey on Smart City Standards

On November 26, within the framework of the 2025 Autumn Economic Forum, Parallel Session 3 took place with the theme “Smart Governance in the Digital Era.”

Fostering Public-Private Partnerships with Global Corporations

Prof. Vu Minh Khuong from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore, suggested five “T” principles for smart citizens: Trust in the government; Responsibility towards the community; Wisdom through knowledge and digital technology; Solidarity—always considering fellow citizens, businesses, and authorities; and Pride in being a citizen of Ho Chi Minh City. When these “5Ts” are strengthened, the government will truly become smart, supported by a mature community.

Drawing from Singapore’s experience, Prof. Vu Minh Khuong highlighted five key lessons: Grasping the right trends of the times; building systemic synergy across sectors without fragmentation; maintaining a clear economic strategy at pivotal moments; persistently learning and attracting talent; and fostering public-private partnerships with global corporations.

He proposed that Ho Chi Minh City learn from Singapore’s model holistically, not just by acquiring technology, and establish a special cooperation committee between Ho Chi Minh City and Singapore to co-create solutions for development.

Discussing digital governance, Ms. Vo Thi Trung Trinh, Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Digital Transformation Center, stated that the city launched its Data Governance Strategy in 2023 to establish core data for digital transformation and smart urban development.

According to Ms. Trinh, transitioning from strategy to implementation has faced challenges, including a lack of interoperability between central and local systems and among departments, leading to fragmented data that is difficult to integrate. Despite existing mechanisms, data sharing remains limited, and a common dataset for governance has yet to be established. Ho Chi Minh City is prioritizing the removal of these bottlenecks to gradually enhance its data foundation, better serving the government, businesses, and citizens.

Comprehensive Survey on Smart City Standards

Mr. Dang Van Tu, Vice Chairman and Chief Technology Officer of CMC Corporation, noted that the private sector still faces obstacles in acceptance, payment, and operational support mechanisms, which hinder the implementation of digital transformation projects. The biggest challenge is the lack of data standardization across ministries, sectors, and localities, as each builds systems differently, making it difficult to achieve “accurate, sufficient, clean, and live” data.

According to Mr. Tu, while sandbox mechanisms exist, their synchronized, consistent, and effective operation is crucial for businesses to truly partner with the government in building a digital government and smart cities.

Concluding the session, Mr. Lam Dinh Thang, Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Science and Technology, affirmed that expert and scientist contributions would be synthesized and submitted to city leaders for consideration in governance. The forum organizers will also continue engaging experts on deeper topics after the Autumn Economic Forum concludes, including evaluations of city governance and smart urban standards for wards, communes, and special zones.

“Ho Chi Minh City plans to conduct a comprehensive survey of all wards, communes, and special zones to assess their alignment with national smart city standards,” Mr. Thang announced. He added that the city is connecting with technology companies to support businesses and improve the environment, attracting investment into the city.