The central city of Danang has been listed amongst 33 municipalities worldwide to receive fund from the Smarter Cities Challenge organised by US-based multinational technology giant IBM.
As part of the funding, IBM will send its top experts to Danang to analyze and put forth recommendations for successful growth, better delivery of municipal services, and more effective citizen engagement.
"The cities that have been selected are all different, but they have one clear similarity: the strong personal commitment by the city's leadership to put in place the changes needed to help the city make smarter decisions," said Stanley S Litow, IBM vice president of corporate citizenship & corporate affairs, and president of IBM's Foundation.
"These cities demonstrated a desire to set an example for other municipalities, an eagerness to collaborate with multiple stakeholders, and a strong commitment to consider implementing recommendations the city felt would be the most feasible and beneficial to their residents."
The IBM Smarter Cities Challenge is a three-year philanthropic initiative, seeking to award a total of USD50 million worth of technology and services to 100 cities worldwide.
The program is conducted by teams of top IBM experts, who study the cities and make detailed recommendations addressing locally important urban issues.
The winning cities proposed intriguing projects and areas of focus for IBM experts. They included initiatives for economic and workforce development, transportation, sustainability, health, education and urban planning.
Last year, 24 cities won IBM Smarter Cities Challenge prizes, and are now making progress in putting their aspirations into practice, having made public policy changes or launched important new initiatives that address longstanding issues.
IBM's Smarter Cities Challenge is an outgrowth of IBM's Corporate Service Corps grants programme, in which IBM deploys teams of top employees to areas in the developing world to work on projects that intersect business, technology, and society, according to VNA.
Since the launch of Corporate Service Corps in 2008, nearly 1,400 IBM employees based in 50 countries have been dispatched on more than 140 team assignments in 24 countries.
