Finnish experts have recently worked in Binh Duong, shared Finland's experiences in master planning to build smart city and innovative ecosystem. These shares helped Binh Duong find, develop appropriate models.
Many seminars organized
From an agriculture-based province, Binh Duong has become an industrial province and led the country in investment attraction. However, Binh Duong is also facing many difficulties and challenges, such as the manufacturing industry has not kept up with the world's advanced technology, low value-added products, labor intensive, environmental issues, limited resources, and social issues. With a goal to renewing the growth model to reach a new height, Binh Duong must own a "smart" development model to capture all short-term opportunities, while preparing for a wealthy Binh Duong City in the future. Based on similarities between Binh Duong Becamex IDC and Brainport Group (the Netherlands), the application of "Triple Helix" into converting to advanced manufacturing economy is the most feasible way for Binh Duong to successfully build a smart city.
According to the plan, Binh Duong New City will be the center of an area called Binh Duong Smart Zone in the future.
In 2016, Binh Duong approved the project of building a smart city based on the model of "Triple Helix". In order to successfully build a smart city, Binh Duong organized international seminars in the last two years to facilitate discussion and sharing of experiences from top leaders and experts in the world and in the country about vision, strategy and action programs of smart city projects around the world; compare and propose practical ideas for Binh Duong in the coming time.
Recently, Finnish experts had a meeting with Binh Duong about Finland’s experiences in master planning to build a smart city and innovative ecosystems, with the aim to meet the needs of Binh Duong in the development process into a global destination through intelligent operation and infrastructure.
According to Finnish experts, innovative cities are planned and built to promote technological innovation and business development. However, only the urban planning and site collaboration of implementing parties is not sufficient to ensure a positive innovation outcome. Evidence shows that innovative cities need to take real driving forces of development as the core. This requires the collaboration and synchronization of management models of innovation centers and innovative cities to initiate innovation activities in the city. An innovative city can only secure its place globally after the city's innovation core achieves stability and the city's intelligence is extended to the creation of innovative business activities.
Experiences from Finland
According to Jukka Viitanen, a Finnish expert, the 21st-century urban planning focuses on smart city’s structures. Currently, there are hundreds of projects in the world that are planning and building so-called smart city, creative cities. These projects focus on setting up completely new cities or renovating existing cities to meet future socio-economic development needs. These projects have the following key features: alternative sources of energy; focusing on energy efficiency (smart grids, green projects); future water management (reuse, recycling, treatment); transportation services (public transport, metro ...); Intelligent communication (broadband, internet, cellular networks ...); providing smart services (electronic management ...). In the future, urban planning professionals need to combine advanced technical solutions (engineering, digital, mobility, and process) and complementary social systems (for innovating, learning, and accumulating knowledge) to create competitive business models.
Smart cities will incorporate necessary functions, like accommodation, office, transportation, design elements (design, architecture, landscaping), essential services (health care health, logistics, business education) to enhance the balance between life and work (living, working, traveling). The combination of solutions based on modern technologies (ICT, energy, materials, recycling, water, and waste) and urban ecosystem solutions will create an attraction to industrial and urban developers. However, a smart city needs to come with innovative thinking. This means that the master plan: Smart city and green buildings must be complemented by functions, structures, and processes that support the joint innovation.
Expert Jukka Viitanen affirmed that innovative city thinking is the thinking that promotes the building of innovation capacity. That is, urban developers must incorporate elements that are beneficial for specific innovations into their original planning processes. These factors must include a plan for innovation/research and development of the sector, business nurseries, and start-up platforms. This will be better done with the collaboration of local industrial clusters, universities and researchers. In addition, organizational structures and processes that are conducive to innovation and potentially have additional values can best be built in conjunction with local industrial clusters, universities, and research community.
The Finnish experts called these future innovation centers "3-in-1 innovation city". They are built on advanced infrastructure with information technology support (smart electrical system, information technology platform, data sharing, intelligent transport system, communication platform). The ultimate goal is to find the right combination of public-private partnerships and innovation platforms to increase knowledge accumulation and promote intellectual property to rapidly commercialize products. Finnish experts said that in order to develop a creative city, innovation centers need to be planned simultaneously in the first master plans. This combination provides a more suitable platform for the formation of joint ventures, public-private partnerships, and investment models.
Proposing a roadmap for building a creative innovative city in Binh Duong, the Finnish side will provide expertise and senior leaders to guide the consulting process, from vision to expansion, from smart cities, innovative cities to assisting professionals in implementing plans, and supporting innovation to enhance the connection between urban development and innovation.
Reported by Phuong Le – Translated by Ngoc Huynh
