Thu Duc City is an opportunity for Ho Chi Minh City to come up with the smartest and most innovative solutions to promote regional development, form a management government based on digital transformation thinking, a digital society and a public economy. technology, service…
“… Simultaneously embrace the new generation’s trend of intelligence, information, digital data…”. This is the affirmation of experts participating in the seminar organized by Tuoi Tre on the occasion of April 30th and welcoming Thu Duc City into operation, starting with a troubling question:
“What to do for Thu Duc City to break through?”, with the participation of experts in law, technology, urban traffic and Thu Duc people.
There is everything but it’s like “nothing”
As a person working in Thu Duc city, Dr. Truong Minh Huy Vu – director of the Software Technology Park, Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City – started the discussion with concern: “Is Thu Duc city an opportunity or a problem? ?”.
Historically, according to Mr. Vu, Thu Duc City was formed on an existing potential area based on the process of forming the eastern part of Ho Chi Minh City many decades ago; has complete transport infrastructure and urban services and has good potential.
Thu Duc City is also part of the result of the urban government model long pursued by HCMC, with one central city and four satellite cities.
Mr. Vu commented: “The form is already available from the apparatus, the scheme, the orientation, the planning, the transport infrastructure, but with the great expectations of the leaders of Ho Chi Minh City, Thu Duc is still nothing. Ho Chi Minh City’s leaders are not expected to build Thu Duc city to continue a developed urban area as it has been for a long time, but to bring it to a new level as the number 1 center for national startups, the center of artificial intelligence of Vietnam. Southeast Asia is expected to be a logistics hub… This is a challenge that requires a lot of effort, more of a problem than an opportunity.”
More clearly about the current conditions of Thu Duc city, Mr. Le Thanh Tung (Tan Phu ward, Thu Duc city) – who has lived since the old Thu Duc district – shared: the most painful problem of the city Thu Duc as well as many districts in Ho Chi Minh City is flooded and traffic jams constantly day in and day out.
“I think the new, young Thu Duc city will solve the traffic jam story to become a city worth living. I hope one day anyone who wants to escape the traffic jam will return to Thu Duc to live”, Mr. Tung expected.
Dr. Vu Anh Tuan – director of the Transport Research Center (Viet Duc University) – assessed: the rate of land for traffic and public transport in Thu Duc City is very low. Public transport in Ho Chi Minh City currently only has buses with a density of 0.67 km of road/km2.
Buses are concentrated on some main roads, the density is uneven, while metro line 1 is too slow to complete. Traffic density is low, there are not many connecting roads between Hanoi Highway and expressway; many areas have narrow roads, weak bridges and even no traffic. Those are the challenges.
Thu Duc is not the addition of three districts
Both experts and residents recognize that “changing skin and changing flesh” to turn Thu Duc City into a new growth pole is a big challenge. So how to turn that challenge into an opportunity? Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pham Duy Nghia – Fulbright University Vietnam – said that Thu Duc City is an opportunity for Ho Chi Minh City to come up with the smartest and most innovative solutions to promote regional development.
Thu Duc must be a city for new experiments, based on new methods, creating management based on digital thinking, digital transformation, digital society. A technology and service platform that embraces the new generation’s trend of intelligence, information, and digital data.
Mr. Nghia emphasized: “The Thu Duc city model is similar to Shanghai’s East Street in that there is a financial center. If Ho Chi Minh City is to become a financial center, it is not only about building office buildings and banks. but also need innovative institutions to attract businesses and people who are willing to transact.
This goal requires Ho Chi Minh City to be the place where big transactions are made, where big deals are made, where investment decisions originate. To do so, the city must have banking-related services, partner capacity assessment, appraisal, market research, insurance, financial, maritime, lawyer, promotion services. non-bank push”.
Mr. Nghia further suggested that the Thu Duc city government must build on the state’s mindset to create a playground for businesses and people, promote and create development.
The mission of the government from a management role, providing public services is transformed into a coordinating, interacting and leading role.
However, Mr. Nghia also expressed many concerns: “The current regulations have not shown the solution, the resolutions related to the establishment of Thu Duc City are still very general.” Dr. Vu Anh Tuan added that in Thu Duc City, there must be an open mechanism for the government to dare to experiment and lead with more enthusiasm. The main point is to create a new mechanism to develop applications in all fields from information technology, finance, transportation, socio-economics. “Thu Duc city needs to have relative independence from HCMC. If it is still accompanied as a district or three districts combined of HCMC with many layers of authority, there is no degree of freedom.
Metro line 1 Ben Thanh – Suoi Tien is under construction. Photo: Tuoi Tre newspaper
Quote: Tuoi Tre Newspaper