Organisations partner to build smart city platform in Vietnam

Three South Korean companies have entered a strategic partnership to build a smart city platform in Vietnam with a view to helping tackle problems caused by rapid urbanisation in the country.

Construction company Daewoo E&C Vina, Bespin Global, a cloud management consultancy, and accelerator SparkLabs Korea plan to build and operate a smart city-integrated management platform for the Starlake City development project in Hanoi.

Increasing efficiencies

The aim is to utilise data generated from Daewoo E&C’s Starlake smart city to improve the efficiency of urban infrastructure operations and management, as well as solve problems caused by rapid urbanisation.

“In order for a smart city to succeed, it is essential to build a ‘smart city platform’ that can collect and analyse various data created by facilities and services in the process of urban development and operation, as well as demonstration projects of element technologies,” said Min-Sik Cho, CEO of Bespin Global.

“I have high expectations because Bespin Global’s technology can contribute to the construction of Daewoo E&C’s smart city development platform and cloud infrastructure.”

Sung-Jin Cho, executive vice president of Daewoo E&C, added: “Starlake City, which is being developed by Daewoo E&C, is Vietnam’s first smart city demonstrative city that is applying smart technologies such as a drone control system, BIM-based construction and operation management, and air quality measurement system. It has contributed to the improvement of Hanoi’s city environment.”

Additionally, the companies announced they are seeking to implement open innovation to discover, invest, and nurture technology start-ups for introduction into ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) with a primary focus on Vietnam.

“In order for a smart city to succeed, it is essential to build a ‘smart city platform’ that can collect and analyse various data created by facilities and services”

“Start-ups with innovative technologies have played a prominent role in the creation of representative smart cities such as Singapore, Dubai, New York, and London,” said Eugene Kim, general partner at SparkLabs Korea and SparkLabs Group.

He continued: “Based on the know-how of SparkLabs Group, which has fostered leading startups in major cities across the globe, we will discover high-capacity startups that will build successful smart cities in ASEAN countries.”

Additionally, SparkLabs will operate and foster the Vietnam Smart Tech Fund, which specialises in smart city solution start-up investment and acceleration. It will also pilot cloud smart city solutions such as autonomous driving, big data, AI, and machine learning with Bespin Global and other select partners.

SparkLabs Group is a network of startup accelerators and venture capital funds that has invested in more than 300 start-ups across six continents since 2013.

Daewoo E&C Vina is the Vietnamese subsidiary of Daewoo E&C (Engineering & Construction).

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