IBM experts help HCM City become smart city

As part of the campaign Smarter Cities – Let’s Build a Smarter Planet City By City, IBM experts are in HCMC to help this city become a smart city.

Guruduth Banavar, vice president and chief technology officer of IBM Corporation’s global public sector, said his team had been in HCMC for three weeks looking at the departments of transportation, natural resources and water, and the food supply chain to help the city improve services and facilities.

Banavar told the Daily on the sidelines of a discussion with faculty representatives from the University of Sciences, under Vietnam National University in HCMC, held in HCM City on Tuesday, “We are visiting all the institutes in HCMC to understand what’s going on today and what we need to do for the next five years.”

His team is studying the city’s ecosystem innovations to advise the chairman of the HCMC People’s Committee on technology innovations. Banavar and his team will write a report after working with universities, laboratories and the government as well as observing traffic systems such as roads and traffic lights.

In December, IBM announced that HCMC was the first city in the world to receive IBM experts to advise about the smarter cities campaign. IBM chose this city thanks to its gross domestic product (GDP) growth. HCMC had the highest GDP growth in the ASEAN region, up to 7% per year, and IBM forecast the rate would increase in the next few decades. With experience in building smart cities around the world, including Singapore, “IBM hopes to help HCMC become a smart city,” said Banavar.

IBM launched the Smarter Cities campaign in 2008 as a corporate initiative underscoring how leaders in business, governments and societies worldwide are capturing the potential of smarter systems to achieve sustainable economic development and social progress. IBM provides technology and process management solutions in these smarter systems, including smart grids, water management systems/strategies for traffic congestion and greener buildings.

Tags: IBM Vietnam, Let's Build a Smarter Planet City By City, Vietnam Information technology, Vietnam IT

Posted by VBN on Mar 5 2010. Filed under Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry