Launching the journey of innovation for sustainable cities

VHO - A series of practical initiatives have been officially launched by Hoi An city, Quang Nam province to promote innovation in the community, as well as spread Hoi An's efforts as a member of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network on the journey to becoming a creative and sustainable city.

Connecting heritage, public-private partnership for sustainable development

The project “Promoting innovation for youth and communities for sustainable urban development”, implemented by the United Nations Human Settlements Program (UN-Habitat), with funding from Fondation Botnar (Switzerland), the implementing unit is the Youth Union of Hoi An City, the Center for Culture - Sports and Radio - Television of Hoi An City, accompanied by business partners, associations and youth union members of Hoi An.

International organizations, businesses and young people participated in the discussion at the workshop “Innovation roadmap and vision of Hoi An's creative space” held on June 15.

Within the framework of the project, Hoi An city and its partners recently launched four key activities to promote innovation in the community, including: Hoi An Creative Space Design Competition.

Hoi An Young Leadership Training Program for 50 high school students with the goal of building a team of innovative successors.

Launching a multi-layered creative map at www.banlinhxuquang.com, the first local online platform connecting creativity from individuals, organizations, products to community ideas.

“Invest in brand – Accelerate sales” campaign with three practical support packages for small and medium enterprises.

As a member of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network, Hoi An has been promoting public-private cooperation to exploit and develop Hoi An's unique resource ecosystem for sustainable development, including heritage, crafts and folk arts interacting in the unique urban life of "village in town, town in village", creating a unique culture and being the foundation of livelihood and urban appearance.

At the same time, the city also focuses on investing in the young generation, who will be the driving force of innovation in Hoi An, directly creating based on indigenous knowledge and global citizen thinking.

It emphasizes the need to form a group of young pioneering leaders, especially with skills in project management, communication, collaboration and understanding of indigenous knowledge. Activities to realize innovative initiatives need to be people-centered.

Mr. Tran Quoc Vuong - Deputy Secretary of Hoi An City Youth Union said that the Hoi An youth leadership training program for 50 outstanding high school students that the project has just launched will contribute to equipping leadership skills, personal development and implementing community projects in the context of globalization currently present in Hoi An.

Youth, experts, and artists discuss at the public consultation seminar on the design competition “Hoi An Creative Space – A Roadmap for Creating Together” held on June 17.

Students participating in this program develop global citizenship skills based on the Talented Leaders program, access indigenous knowledge systems, practice lean community project management and communication skills to enhance their capacity to design and operate community initiatives.

They will directly design and implement local initiatives, contributing to solving issues related to resources, heritage and community livelihoods with the expectation of becoming a core force leading the journey to develop Hoi An into a creative, inclusive and sustainable urban area.

The Hoi An Creative Space Design Competition calls on architects, designers, artists and community groups to contribute ideas and design models for a shared creative space in Hoi An's Central Park.

This space will be a gathering place for cultural, artistic, learning and community connection activities, nurturing ideas and spreading the spirit of innovation for the city's development.

Creative map connecting to support young businesses

The project also officially launched the Multi-Layer Creative Map, an online platform that showcases the creative capacities, resources and actors present in Hoi An and Tam Ky.

At the same time, officially launched a crowdfunding campaign and implemented support packages for local businesses under the name "Brand Investment - Sales Acceleration".

This is an initiative initiated by UN-Habitat, aiming to enhance the competitiveness of local small and medium enterprises through three practical support packages.

Specifically, package 1 helps businesses standardize profiles, brand design and sales documents; package 2 supports the operation of social networking platforms and customer care via interactive CRM; package 3 guides the setting up of booths on e-commerce platforms and exploiting internal tools such as advertising, promotions and livestreaming.

Young people in Hoi An learn information and explore innovative resources of Quang Nam

Mr. Kieu Viet Cuong, Acting Chief Representative of UN-Habitat Vietnam, said that within the framework of the project, since 2024, Hoi An city has organized many dialogue sessions with young people and expanded public-private cooperation since 2024.

At the workshop “Innovation roadmap and vision of Hoi An’s creative space” held on June 15, representatives of young people, representatives from the innovation community, young entrepreneurs and local businesses also had an open discussion to frankly share about the needs, desires and the innovation ecosystem that the project has been building and will create what impact if there is real involvement of the government and participation of the people and the creative community.

Joining the UNESCO Creative Cities Network since the end of 2023, Hoi An city has made efforts to implement initiatives and commitments to form and promote the development of local cultural and creative industries, replicate innovative models, create spillover effects throughout the city, and contribute to promoting the city's economy .

In addition, in the past year, Hoi An also focused on building the Project "Hoi An - Creative City for the period 2024 - 2027, with a vision to 2032". Specifically, it will collect data and documents in related fields such as history, culture, architecture, environmental resources, education, economy, society, traditional craft villages, handicrafts, arts, foreign affairs, international cooperation and exchange...

Source: https://baovanhoa.vn/van-hoa/khoi-dong-hanh-trinh-doi-moi-sang-tao-vi-do-thi-ben-vung-144643.html