| Panellists at a seminar titled “Digital Twins for Smart City Development” held in HCM City on May 6. — Photo courtesy of the organisers | HCM CITY — Data, artificial intelligence and digital twin technology are playing a growing role in smart city development in Việt Nam, experts said at the 5th National Forum on Emerging Technologies for Smart and Sustainable City Development held in HCM City last week. They said smart cities are entering a new phase, moving beyond the digitalisation of public services towards real-time analysis, forecasting and data-driven urban governance powered by AI and big data. At the forum, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Lê Xuân Định said Việt Nam is refining its legal framework for smart city development through major policies, including Decision 950/QD-TTg on sustainable smart city development, Resolution 06-NQ/TW, Politburo Resolution 57, and Government Decree 269/2025/ND-CP on smart city development. “These policies demonstrate the Government’s strong commitment to promoting digital transformation, modernising urban governance, and improving people’s quality of life. “Technology is not merely a tool, it is the core driver of urban intelligence. Without core technologies, smart cities would remain limited to process digitisation rather than achieving automated analysis, forecasting, and optimisation.” But he admitted that smart city development still faces several bottlenecks like fragmented data among localities and departments and intelligent operation centres failing to fully utilise AI and big data. Many cities also still lack digital twin platforms for urban simulation and forecasting, he said. To address these challenges, the ministry proposed focusing on certain priorities like promoting “dual transformation” in green and digital development, establishing unified data standards, research into AI, big data and digital twin technologies, encouraging sandbox mechanisms for emerging technologies, developing high-quality human resources, and ensuring data security. Dr Nguyễn Thị Bích Lan, director of