At the workshop "Hanoi - smart city and open banking ecosystem" held on the morning of October 2 - the highlight event of Vietnam Card Day 2024, Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam Pham Tien Dung said that currently 97% of transactions are conducted on digital channels with 80% of adults having bank accounts. This is an important foundation for Hanoi to build a smart city.

In the first 7 months of this year, non-cash payment transactions reached 9.31 billion transactions with a value of 160 million billion VND (up 58.4% in quantity and 35% in value); via the Internet channel reached 1.72 billion transactions with a value of more than 42 million billion VND (up 49.8% in quantity and 33.7% in value); via mobile phone channel reached 6.48 billion transactions with a value of nearly 41.1 million billion VND (up 59.1% in quantity and 38% in value); transactions via QR Code reached 151.7 million transactions with a value of 84.6 thousand billion VND (up 106.8% in quantity and 105.5% in value).

Mr. Pham Tien Dung (1).jpg
Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam Pham Tien Dung: Banking activities cannot be separated from smart city activities.

In addition, according to the provisions of Circular 17/2024 of the State Bank, from January 1, 2025, bank accounts that have not been biometrically authenticated will have their transactions on electronic channels stopped. Account data must be guaranteed to be live data, fully compared with the CCCD to minimize the leasing and lending of bank accounts, contributing to preventing fraud.

“All activities in life, from buying and selling goods and services, are associated with banking services. If smart cities cannot be integrated with banking activities, people will only be a part of the smart city. Conversely, banking activities cannot be separated from smart city activities,” Deputy Governor Pham Tien Dung emphasized.

Mr. Ha Minh Hai, Vice Chairman of Hanoi People's Committee, said that digital transformation is not only an inevitable trend but also the key for Hanoi to continue to develop sustainably, improve competitiveness and especially improve the quality of life for people.

“With the perspective of putting people and businesses at the center of development, digital transformation not only helps build a transparent, modern and effective public service system but also contributes to the process of building a digital economy, digital society, and promoting development,” said the Vice Chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee.

Mr. Ha Minh Hai.jpg
Mr. Ha Minh Hai, Vice Chairman of Hanoi People's Committee, spoke at the workshop.

Specifically, with the public transport system, Ms. Tran Thi Phuong Thao - Deputy Director of the Hanoi Traffic Management and Operation Center - cited that the center has coordinated the implementation of many scientific and technological applications to serve passengers and enhance the management capacity of state agencies, such as: Piloting the multi-modal electronic ticket system; journey monitoring software (GPS); Busmap application; piloting the intelligent transport system.

Among them, there are key projects such as: Piloting the interoperable electronic ticket system; bus route monitoring software (GPS) at bus units...

According to the 2025 open data catalog on traffic, Hanoi will integrate data on inner-city routes, parking lots, driving training facilities and testing centers, street lighting systems, signs, and lists of prohibited routes in the area.

This year, the city has directed the integration of traffic data into the iHaNoi application (digital capital citizen). Through that, people can have more access to the city's traffic database.

Regarding the retail payment infrastructure for smart cities, Mr. Nguyen Hoang Long, Deputy General Director of National Payment Joint Stock Company (Napas), said that Napas has integrated smart payments into the national public service portal, VNEID, to pay for documents using non-cash methods. Accordingly, customers can make payments directly on the national or city public service software.

With the Government's orientation that by 2030, Vietnam will be in the top 50 countries in e-Government, 100% of level 4 online public services will be provided on various electronic media, 80% of the population will have electronic payment accounts, provinces and cities across the country, especially key cities, need to focus on the digital transformation journey to achieve the set goals.

Mr. Tran Van Thanh, Deputy Head of Digital Channel and Partner Development Department, Vietcombank, assessed that smart solutions for urban utilities are considered a fundamental element throughout, in particular, digital payment will be a powerful tool to do that.

“Digital payments are present in all areas from essential services such as: Smart transportation, digital healthcare, digital education, utility services, online public administrative services to retail and commercial tourism,” said Mr. Thanh.