Solid foundation for new successes
In 2016, Binh Duong officially announced the Binh Duong Smart City Project, a strategic breakthrough program in socio-economic development in order to gradually shift the province's economy to high-tech services and build Binh Duong into a green, smart and modern city. With the pillar of the Smart City Project being the Three-House model (State, enterprise, school), after 4 years of implementation, the Project has achieved initial results which are considered as the foundation for the strong transformation of the province, opening up many potential new opportunities for the next phase.
The most obvious achievement must be mentioned is foreign investment attraction, trade surplus, etc. exceeding the plan and targets assigned by the Government. The number of enterprises in the province from the beginning of 2016 to March 2020 more than doubled, from over 20,000 to more than 45,000. In recent years, Binh Duong has continuously appeared in the top of the country in many fields such as infrastructure (according to the assessment of the Provincial Competitiveness Index), foreign investment attraction (according to statistics of the Foreign Investment Agency), trade surplus (according to the General Statistics Office's report), etc. Even in terms of social security, Binh Duong is also the first locality in the country to build social housing for low-income people and is the only province to date that has eliminated all poor households according to the central government's criteria, etc. Programs to promote innovation and research in science and technology (ST), modern education such as STEM/STEAM, provincial innovation center, technology laboratories (TechLab, FabLab), business incubators, etc. have been actively and vigorously deployed by the government as well as institutes, schools and enterprises.
Binh Duong is honored in TOP7 by ICF, becoming one of 07 communities with typical smart development strategies in the world
Many programs to apply ST to life such as geographic information system (GIS) with digitized data of planning maps in the entire province; automatic monitoring system to monitor environmental components and control waste sources from all industrial parks and important areas in the province; a database on land and environment to support close and proactive management; starting to form enterprise database to support management and analysis to promote investment attraction; successfully deploying the Call center 1022 for people to connect directly with the government 24/7, etc. From the smart city strategies, the province has gradually cooperated, attracting many leading corporations in ST such as Schneider Group, Philips, Bosch, NXP, Intel, TMA, etc. prestigious domestic and international institutes and schools such as National University of Singapore (NUS), Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) in Taiwan, Chungnam National University in Korea, Portland State University in USA, Ho Chi Minh City National University, Institute of Applied Mechanics and Informatics - Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, etc. from there to build large-scale research, creation and training centers.
Another outstanding feature is the promotion of foreign affairs and international cooperation through international conferences and seminars held in Binh Duong with an increasing number and scale. Binh Duong has also successfully hosted international events on economic cooperation, ST, innovation and smart cities such as the Global Innovation Forum with the World Technopolis Association (WTA) and UNESCO, Asian Economic Cooperation Forum (Horasis), etc. every year attracting thousands of business leaders, multinational corporations, universities, politicians, mayors of provinces and cities across the continent come to participate, bringing enormous practical benefits with opportunities for investment cooperation, experience exchange, bringing the province's brand to the international level. Binh Duong and other regions in the province have in turn joined world-renowned organizations such as the Intelligent Community Forum (ICF), the World Technopolis Association (WTA), the World Trade Centers Association (WTCA), etc. For three consecutive years 2018 and 2019, 2020, Binh Duong Smart Region was honored by ICF as one of 21 areas with typical smart city development strategies of the world (Smart21). In particular, in July 2021, Binh Duong province was honored in TOP7 by ICF, becoming one of 07 communities with typical Smart development strategies in the world.
Building an innovation startup ecosystem
In 2021, the world will have a lot of changes due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the way people live, work, interact and consume is increasingly geared towards digital technology. The international production chain is also changing, opening up many opportunities for developing countries, while people and enterprises aspire to innovate and the ST in the 4.0 era continues to advance rapidly. With that context, in the 2021-2025 period, the Binh Duong Smart City Project will still be specially invested and developed by the province, which is the spearhead for breaking through to reach the international level. The project continues to maintain the big goal set, at the same time, deploys with more focus and depth, and will pay more attention to the digital economy and innovation. Binh Duong, with its new potential and position, needs bolder and more specific projects, creating a ripple effect for the entire region and Vietnam.
From the above vision, Binh Duong together with international partners from Eindhoven - Netherlands, WTA - Korea and experts from Singapore collaborated to build a breakthrough project of "Binh Duong Innovation Region" - the focus of the Smart City Project for the 2021-2025 period. The region includes Di An, Thuan An, Thu Dau Mot cities, Tan Uyen, Ben Cat Towns and Bau Bang district.
Students at Eastern International University research and develop ST
Dr. Nguyen Viet Long - Director of Department of Science and Technology, Director of Binh Duong Smart City Office shared, to build an innovation startup ecosystem, the province will focus on constantly innovating open mechanisms and policies, reforming administrative procedures, supporting enterprises, contributing to creating motivation, passion and excitement for the startup movement. In addition, the province is increasingly promoting awareness of the 4.0 model and technology for the state management team, contributing to raising the level of the state apparatus to a new height, in the direction of being streamlined, increasingly dynamic, creative, sensitive and more profound in leadership and management. At the same time, developing a strategy to develop an innovative culture to all segments of society, from which innovation will be spread, taking place on a wide and deep scale, helping Binh Duong create a breakthrough in economic and social development in the new period.
To promote the implementation of the Binh Duong Innovation Region Project, on November 01, 2021, in the United Kingdom, an Online signing ceremony in collaboration for the development of Binh Duong Smart City - Binh Duong Innovation Region took place between Becamex IDC and The Connected Places Catapult (CPC – United Kingdom). This is one of the activities during the business trip of Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh to visit and work in the UK and France and attend the COP26.
Becamex IDC and The Connected Places Catapult (CPC – United Kingdom) sign an online cooperation agreement to develop the Binh Duong Smart City and Binh Duong Innovation Region
The collaboration between CPC and Becamex IDC is to support the development of Binh Duong Smart City, Binh Duong Innovation Region and Binh Duong Science and Technology Industrial Park, the next stage in the innovation journey, creating a complete investment attraction model with 2 core values: To be a science and technology center in which three-house cooperation (government, enterprises and research institutes) is encouraged, promoted and replicated; to be a center of R&D and production of industries with high scientific and technical content and high added value.
Mr. Nguyen Van Hung - Board of Directors' Chairman of Becamex IDC, said that this collaboration is an ideal opportunity for Binh Duong to connect more strongly with UK's technology, start-up and innovation enterprises, promote UK's experience in science and technology in the development of Binh Duong in the new period. At the same time, the UK's technology, start-up and innovation enterprises have a very good opportunity to research and find out the potential market in Vietnam, increase opportunities for long-term cooperation in Vietnam in particular and the Asia region in general.
Reported by Mai Xuan - Translated by Nguyen Trang