Da Nang city, a first class city and major seaport in Vietnam, has launched a new ICT infrastructure system to create a solid foundation for building an efficient e-government platform for the city.

The Deputy Minister of Information and Communications, Nguyen Minh Hong, said, “In order to promote and exploit the modern IT infrastructure, city leaders need to continue encouraging implementation of ICT in all sectors of the economy, by providing online information and services to enhance the government transparency, and serve residents and businesses better.”

The new infrastructure system consists of a Metropolitan Area Network (MAN), a WiFi system, a green data centre and an ICT application training and research centre.

Promoting efficiency in local government management, the MAN will connect all departments and agencies across the city to an internet network with a total bandwidth of capacity of 10 gigabytes per second (Gbps). This will also provide a base to build up the city’s e-government platform.

The WiFi system will consist of 150 transmission stations across the city, allowing residents to easily access and use the various online services made available by the government.

In order to support the efficient delivery of the government’s electronic services, the data centre will allow employees of the city agencies to access applications and services through an internal network. It will also support the city-wide WiFi service.

The Deputy Minister added, “The city also needs to train and build up high quality ICT staff in order to serve the IT industry in Da Nang and also exploit the modern ICT infrastructure, in particular.”

The city has recently modernised its water and transport systems, providing tools to the city officials to watch trends, forecast demand and better manage the city’s resources and infrastructure.

The city government has focused on the computerisation of transactions with and by government agencies, since 2000. Over the years, this has encouraged the various departments to constantly promote application of ICT in operation and administration, and has led to the city holding the leading position in the country for ICT application.