People are increasingly using Hue-S.

Increase interaction

The Smart City Monitoring and Operating Center (HueIOC) was launched by the city in 2018, at a time when the concept of "smart city" was still relatively new in Vietnam. To date, HueIOC has completed phase 1 and is implementing phase 2, gradually shifting from a "monitoring" role to an "operating" role.

If HueIOC is the central operating center, then the Hue-S application is considered the "front door" of Hue 's smart city, where citizens can interact directly with the government. With over 1.3 million registered accounts, including more than 900,000 accounts of Hue residents verified through VNeID, Hue-S has become a familiar digital platform.

According to the Department of Science and Technology, Hue-S records an average of 25 million visits per year, integrating more than 50 functions, with 100% of smart city services put into practical operation. Beyond online public services, Hue-S also covers many essential areas such as education , healthcare, cashless payments, tourism, incident reporting, and disaster prevention.

According to Nguyen Xuan Son, Director of the Department of Science and Technology, the greatest value of Hue-S lies not in the number of features, but in creating a monitored two-way interactive channel.

To date, the most significant development in Hue's Smart City is the increasing use of data as the foundation for management and decision-making. The surveillance camera system, comprising over 650 cameras and integrating 29 artificial intelligence solutions, has assisted authorities in handling over 62,000 traffic violations, tracing hundreds of security and order incidents, and detecting numerous forest fire risks early. The application of AI in surveillance is not intended to replace human labor, but rather to enhance early detection capabilities and reduce the burden on law enforcement, especially given the ever-expanding management area.

In the field of public administration, 100% of work files have been processed online; nearly 6 million electronic documents have been digitally signed, saving billions of dong in administrative costs each year. The public service monitoring system has also recorded hundreds of violations related to the procedure for handling administrative processes, thereby helping to improve administrative discipline and order.

Despite achieving many positive results, according to the Department of Science and Technology, the city's data infrastructure is not yet fully synchronized; the interoperability and integration between national and local systems still experience delays; and the application of AI, IoT, and Big Data is still in its early stages and has not been implemented on a large scale. Notably, the digital skills of the population have only reached about 66.6%, lower than the target of 70% set for the next phase. This is considered a "soft bottleneck," because smart cities can only truly be effective when citizens have the capacity to use and exploit digital services.

"Popularizing digital skills, training technology human resources, and building a team of data-minded officials are being identified as key tasks in the 2026-2030 period," Mr. Nguyen Xuan Son emphasized.

Striving to be among the top 50 smartest cities in the world.

The draft plan for the development of Hue City's smart city from 2026 to 2030, with a vision to 2045, shows a clear shift from a pilot-based approach to a strategic one. The focus is not just on applications, but also on smart city planning, 3D digital maps, digital city twin (Digital Twin), internationally standardized data centers, and shared data platforms.

According to the Hue City People's Committee, the total estimated cost for this phase is approximately 500 billion VND, with social resources and public-private partnerships accounting for a large proportion. This allocation method ensures data sovereignty while mobilizing resources from the private sector for sustainable smart city development.

Hue also has a long-term goal of registering to become one of the world's top 50 smart cities and striving to be among them. For the city's leaders, this is not just a formal goal, but a pressure to standardize urban governance according to international criteria, in line with Hue's new role as a centrally-governed city.

At a working session with the delegation from the Ministry of Construction at the end of December 2025, Standing Committee member of the Hue City Party Committee and Permanent Vice Chairman of the Hue City People's Committee, Nguyen Thanh Binh, affirmed that developing smart cities is an important and continuous task, linked to the orientation of building Hue into a heritage, cultural, ecological, smart, and sustainable city.

According to Comrade Nguyen Thanh Binh, Hue did not choose a "do it for the sake of doing it" approach, but determined that the smart city must first and foremost serve the people and businesses, and improve the efficiency of government management and administration.

Also at the aforementioned meeting, Deputy Minister of Construction Nguyen Tuong Van highly appreciated Hue's systematic and proactive approach. He noted that a significant aspect of Hue's smart city model is the integration of technological development with the preservation and promotion of heritage values, and the connection between investment in technical infrastructure and the construction and interoperability of data for guidance and management. This approach is well-suited to Hue's specific characteristics, avoiding the risk of chasing technology without depth.

Text and photos: Le Tho

Source: https://huengaynay.vn/chinh-polit-xa-hoi/huong-den-phuong-thuc-quan-tri-do-thi-moi-162908.html