Participants at the event
The event, part of the visit of the Swedish Sustainable City Delegation to Vietnam on May 7
th-8
th, aimed to strengthen the collaboration between the two countries by sharing experiences, best practices, and technologies to support the development of the public transport sector.
In his speech at roundtable discussions, Swedish Ambassador Pereric Högberg said the increasing urbanization rate in big cities like Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh city makes transport demand also rise, thus, Vietnam will face many challenges, especially in public transport.
He hoped that the visit of the Swedish Trade Union will help Vietnam find the best solutions to improve the quality of public transport under a sustainable development strategy.
Mr. Le Dinh Tho, Deputy Minister of Transport said that together with the increasingly upgraded and completed transport system, the quality of air, road and railway services have been modernized for safety and efficiency. 60 out of 63 provinces and cities nationwide have bus systems. For Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh city, the public transport system has received much investment in both quantity and quality, especially the rapid bus route in the capital.
While Mr. Nguyen Doan Toan, Vice Chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee, reviewed challenges which transport in big hubs is now encountering and 6 groups of solutions which the capital is implementing. Particularly, in the new development period, Hanoi has been facing rising challenges such as increasing demand of individual vehicles, increasing population, limited land fund and urban space in the inner city, and challenges in traffic safety and environmental pollution.
Like many Asian countries, Vietnam is going through rapid urbanization. As of 2017, around 40% of Vietnam’s population of 93 million lived in urban areas. This is expected to increase to 50% by 2025. With the government’s orientation toward sustainable urbanization, public transportation has become the key factor in the journey to develop urban mobility.
In the strategy for the development of public transportation to 2020, with orientations toward 2030, Vietnam aims to make public transportation the preferable choice in tandem with the control of private vehicle growth and to upgrade the quality of urban transportation.
At the event, Swedish companies including ABB, Eriksson, Volvo Buses, Axis Communications, Volvo Cars and Roxtec, had discussions with several public and private stakeholders in the public transport and urban development sector on how Vietnam can increase urban ridership in public transport, ensure that urban environment is safe, as well as how Vietnam can make use of the latest technologies available in Internet of Things and eMobility./.