Dr. Viet-Long Nguyen

Joost Helms

(May 30, 2017 – New York City) On June 7 at the ICF Summit, representatives from Binh Duong New City in Vietnam and Eindhoven, The Netherlands, will jointly deliver this year’s Revolutionary Community keynote address. The keynote presentation will be given by Dr. Viet-Long Nguyen, Director IR & Strategy of the Becamex Group, a state-owned agency in Vietnam. The project is an historic attempt by Vietnam to develop its first Intelligent Community. The Binh Duong initiative will literally develop a city for one million citizens that is brand new. The project will rely on ICF’s six core Indicators.

Dr. Long was named Director of the Binh Duong Smart City Office. Presenting with Dr. Long will be Joost Helms, the co-director of the Eindhoven International Project Office (EIPO) in The Netherlands. Eindhoven was ICF’s 2011 Intelligent Community of the Year. The EIPO is mentoring their Vietnamese colleagues in this effort, and working to coordinate government, academic and private investors in what it calls “the triple helix approach.”The region’s planned “triple helix” will include Eastern International University, a new university which will house the region’s first incubator, as well as a new citizen-friendly administration building for its local government. These two are built. The entire project will be completed by 2020, according to Becamex.

Dr. Long and Mr. Helms will discuss how Vietnam has embraced the digital age and has moved toward its aspiration of becoming the nation’s first designated Intelligent Community via the ICF’s Awards process

ICF co-founder Lou Zacharilla visited the region in December 2016 to speak and to preside over the launch of the “triple helix” plan. While there, he met with the political, academic and business leadership of Binh Duong. Click here to read more about the visit.

“This project is revolutionary and will give Summit guests an insight into how Vietnam plans to continue its rapid ascent toward the middle class and explore ways of keeping its talented young people ‘home.’ Mr. Zacharilla said.

About the ICF Summit, 6-8 June, New York City
The annual ICF Summit is unlike any municipal, urban planning or economic development conference you attend. Attendees will take away value that translates into direct benefit to the citizens, businesses and institutions they serve:

• Economic development leads. Identify site location and investment opportunities, as well as “soft landing” targets for local business, at our economic development matchmaking session.
• Ideas you can put to use. Meet officials from cities, counties and metro areas who face similar challenges and have created strategies and programs to deal with them. Many may have developed solutions that apply to your community. Peer mentoring starts at the Summit and continues long after through the relationships you forge.
• Inspiration to act. Too often, efforts to build a better community wind up in an endless loop of meetings, analysis, workshops and more analysis. The inspiring examples you encounter at the Summit show you how to take the first essential steps on the journey.
• International reach. McKinsey & Company estimates that 80% of the world’s trade will cross international borders by 2027. Nobel Prize-winning economist Robert Solow has proven that 80% of economic growth comes from technology innovation. The Summit is your most direct route to international opportunity in the innovation economy.

Key Events at the Annual ICF Summit include:

• Urban and Rural Master Classes teaching development strategies based on information and communications technology
• Economic Development Matchmaking for public and private-sector organizations seeking new opportunities.
• Top7 Intelligent Communities Reception, honoring the finalists for the Intelligent Community Awards
• Top7 Conversations with the mayors and administrative leaders of our finalists
• Intelligent Community Awards Dinner, where one of the Top7 is named Intelligent Community of the Year

The 2017 ICF Summit takes place on June 6-8 in New York City. Click here for more information.

About the Intelligent Community Forum
The Intelligent Community Forum (www.intelligentcommunity.org), headquartered in New York, is a global movement of nearly 150 cities, metro regions and counties with a think tank at its heart. ICF studies and promotes the best practices of the world's Intelligent Communities as they adapt to the new demands and seize the opportunities presented by information and communications technology (ICT). To help cities and regions build prosperous economies, solve social problems and enrich local cultures, the Intelligent Community Forum conducts research, hosts global events, publishes books, and produces its high-profile annual international awards program. The Forum has two Institutes in North America dedicated to the study of the movement, with more institutes planned. Global leaders, thinkers, and media observers follow and participate in the ongoing global dialogue initiated by the Intelligent Community Forum. In 2012 ICF was invited to participate at the Nobel Peace Prize conference in Oslo and in 2014, its model and work was recognized by the U.S. Department of Commerce under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, which, according to the American government, was "aimed at creating a more flexible and responsive system of workforce development to meet the needs of employers looking to fill 21st century jobs.” The Forum’s membership is made up of 145 designated Intelligent Communities worldwide, which is represented by mayors and key civic leaders. For more information, go to www.intelligentcommunity.org/icf_membership. For more details on the Intelligent Community Forum’s recent publications and programs, www.intelligentcommunity.org.

Intelligent Community Forum Contacts
Matthew Owen
Director of Operations
Intelligent Community Forum
Phone: +1 646-291-6166 (x105)
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @Newcommunities