Thua Thien-Hue, Facebook form comprehensive partnership

Thua Thien – Hue (VNA) – The central province of Thua Thien Hue and Facebook have launched a comprehensive partnership programme on the application of digital economy in promoting the heritage city’s potential and innovation.

According to the provincial People’s Committee, the programme contains a series of activities to support the province in its digital transformation process with the aim of turning Hue city into a centrally-run municipality in the near future. This is Facebook's first-ever comprehensive partnership with a province or city in Vietnam.

The cooperation programme between Facebook and Thua Thien Hue province will be part of Facebook’s campaign named Facebook for Vietnam, which involves the digital economy, innovation, digital safety and skills, smart city and Facebook for the community.

One activity under the programme is to deploy Augmented Reality (AR) to promote the image of Thua Thien Hue province, contributing to the development of local programmers and software developers while encouraging them to create and apply new technologies to serve the practical needs of their home province.

Besides, the social network will assist in equipping teachers and students with digital skills based on the ‘We Think Digital’ programme.

It will help training Government Facebook page admins on how to enhance their capability to use Facebook as an effective and quick communications channel within their organisations and with the public.

The comprehensive partnership programme also aims to raise the capacity of disaster response for local officials.

Nguyen Phuong Chi, Vietnam Public Policy Manager at Facebook, said: “We are very pleased to be a part of the effort on conveying the strategic vision outlined by Thua Thien - Hue People's Committee, aiming at making Hue a Tier 1 city on the basis of promoting heritage values and innovation, taking information and communication technology as a breakthrough factor for development."

Vice chairman of the provincial people’s committee, Phan Thien Dinh, said the partnership is expected to support the province in developing e-Government and becoming a ‘smart city’.

He noted the local authorities are speeding up the process to help the province achieve this goal as soon as possible, including promoting the development of information technology and digital transformation.

Thua Thien – Hue would like to cooperate with Facebook in all pillars that the company is running in Vietnam, especially in terms of capacity building and innovation, he said.

The official stressed his belief that the comprehensive partnership can address and focus on strategic issues of the province in accordance with the Politburo’s Resolution 54 dated from 2019 and development goals of the two parties.

In 2018, Facebook cooperated with the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, organising three training courses in three key cities, namely Ha Long, Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang.

In 2019, the company teamed up with Da Nang for the first time to strengthen the digital capabilities of government agencies and support disaster management efforts. The successes and practical lessons from this comprehensive programme serve as the premise for Facebook to replicate the model in other provinces, cities and governmental agencies in the future.

Thua Thien-Hue is working to build its capital Hue into Vietnam’s first smart communication city.

It decided to spend 325 billion VND (nearly 14 million USD) to carry out a project on development smart urban services to 2020, with a vision to 2025. The project aims to streamline urban management, offer convenient and quick public services, and improve the environment.

The province envisions that it will reach the same standards of health care, education and tourism services as those available in smart cities in the region and the world by 2025./.