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At the meeting |
Vice Chairman of Thu Duc City People’s Committee Nguyen Ky Phung informed that the city is using technology to transform itself into a smart, innovative urban area. Therefore, the establishment of a digital ecosystem is its critical long-term mission.
In addition, Thu Duc City People’s Committee is assigned to implement the project ‘Developing a Centralized Urban Database System on a Shared GIS Platform to Manage Land Use, Natural Resources, Infrastructure, Investment Projects in Thu Duc City’. This database will be unified, synchronous, and inter-connected in order to serve administrative tasks of the state and support citizens, businesses.
Participants in the meeting first evaluated the current status of geospatial data in HCMC as well as experience in launching platforms for sharing geospatial and natural resources data. They then discussed and proposed feasible solutions, overall architecture models that can integrate and share geographic data in hope of forming a centralized urban database for Thu Duc City.
Director Bui Hong Son of the IT Center for Natural Resources and Environment (under the HCMC Department of Natural Resources and Environment) reported that over 80 percent of data could be geospatial ones under the management of different state units, yet they have not gained much attention among state agencies since not many can recognize their true values and exploit them effectively.
Obviously, it is not a lack of technology but loose links among state agencies, departments in sharing available databases that have caused problems. Hence, it is necessary to create a model for consistently sharing geospatial data within and outside state agencies. There must be a strategy to combine existing maps into one user-friendly map for the public to exploit.
“Thu Duc City must review and then boldly promote digitizing any data in need, along with building a mechanism for shared databases among state departments, agencies. Simultaneously, the city has to actively develop data within its power to improve the quality of its current maps for socio-economic growth”, proposed Director Son.
He concluded that since technology grows swiftly, Thu Duc City should choose a quite advanced but not necessarily the latest technology so as to bring quick effects and make it spread easily.
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Experts are presenting their suggestions |
Nguyen Huu Tuan, Deputy Director of the Southern Solution Center under Viettel Enterprise Solutions Corp. commented that HCMC, in particular Thu Duc City, has digitized much of their data. What they need now is a centralized urban database system, especially synchronous geospatial one.
In the upcoming time, when HCMC finishes its databases on healthcare and education, Thu Duc City must quickly link and synchronize its own databases with those valuable ones, followed by the development of suitable applications for the community to exploit those data effectively.
“What is important now is to expand and perfect currently used applications. Such small yet practical acts can gradually serve the public’s needs”, suggested Mr. Tuan.
To conclude the meeting, Vice Chairman Phung thanked all proposals from experts and stated that Thu Duc City People’s Committee is going to carefully study all opinions to prepare a draft report for the project to submit to HCMC People’s Committee for approval.
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The Smart Traffic Monitoring and Operation Center in Ho Chi Minh City helps monitor traffic, control signal lights, provide traffic information, and handle violations (Illustrative photo: SGGP) |
