Fredericton’s Knowledge Industry: A Mid-Year Update on a National Contributor

In my January commentary, I shared the Fredericton Chamber of Commerce’s 2025 vision: to Recognize, Support, and Elevate Fredericton’s Knowledge Economy as Fredericton’s Knowledge Industry. Now, as we find ourselves halfway through the year it’s time to reflect on the progress we’ve made and the momentum we’re building amongst this era of uncertainty we have all been navigating together.

Binh Duong (VNA) – With export turnover reaching 18.4 billion USD in the first half of the year, an increase of 13.9% year-on-year, the industrial hub of Binh Duong province has continued to affirm its position as one of Vietnam’s leading economic bright spots.

Despite global economic uncertainties, Binh Duong has maintained strong momentum in both exports and industrial production during the first half of 2025.

Final part: Establishing a global brand

With the support of Becamex IDC, Binh Duong province has been developing a smart city and an innovation region. The foundation of this smart city is built upon the Industrial - Service - Urban Complex, with Binh Duong New City as its central core. Becoming a smart city reflects the strong aspiration of generations of leaders and residents in the province to rise and thrive in the new era—the era of growth.

Innovation and creativity serve as a driving force for sustainable development and a key to improving management effectiveness and leadership capacity, particularly in the context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. In Binh Duong, innovative initiatives have led to breakthroughs in economic management and are helping to effectively achieve the goals set by the 11th provincial Party Congress for the 2020-2025 term.

Developing a smart city is not only a strategic initiative for socio-economic advancement but also a goal embraced by the Party Committee, the government, and the people of Binh Duong province. This clear and consistent vision has allowed us to achieve significant breakthroughs in socio-economic growth, transforming Binh Duong into a worth-living city and enhancing its reputation on the international stage.

The City of Columbus, through its Sustainable Columbus office, was awarded $778,900 from the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) Program, a funding opportunity from the Office of State and Community Energy Programs (SCEP) at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The City of Columbus is one of the more than 2,700 eligible states, territories, local governments, and Tribes to receive a portion of the more than $430 million in formula funding that will help meet the unique energy needs in communities that serve more than 250 million Americans.

Sustainable Columbus will utilize the funding to partner with the Human Service Chamber (HSC) to provide commercial building energy audits and technical assistance to area nonprofit organizations. This collaboration supports Columbus Climate Action Plan goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while keeping equity and environmental justice at the center. These values are shared by HSC and this new program, administered by the HSC, will facilitate energy and cost-saving measures, allowing participating nonprofits to redirect more of their budget toward their core mission of serving Columbus’ opportunity neighborhoods and climate vulnerable communities.

Smart City Success Stories: Launches, Collaborations and Events. Published by the City of Coral Gables Innovation & Technology Department (CGIT).

The City of Coral Gables promotes the development of a smart city ecosystem that fosters innovation and economic growth by bringing together through technology People; Businesses, Organizations; Things, and Systems. By leveraging strategic planning and innovation, the City’s digital transformation and smart initiatives benefit the citizens with continuous improvement of customer service and quality of life. Our smart city roadmap is defined by the components of transparency, value creation; open data and analytics; actionable information, efficiencies; citizen engagement, mobility, accessibility; crowdsourcing; inclusion, and collaboration. The success stories, launches, collaborations, and events below are part of our continuous and exciting journey to become a smarter city.

On September 25, Mr. Nguyen Van Loi, member of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of Binh Duong Provincial Party Committee, Head of the Provincial National Assembly’s Delegation, received Mr. John Jung, co-founder of the Intelligent Community Forum (ICF), on the occasion of the ICF delegation attending the announcement ceremony of the Binh Duong Provincial Planning for the period 2021-2030, with a vision to 2050. The reception also had Mr. Nguyen Loc Ha, Standing Member of the Provincial Party Committee, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee; and leaders of relevant departments and branches.

Brick House Blue is joining Hilliard's TruePointe development.

The local coworking company, which is also set to open a New Albany location in December, recently signed a lease for about 15,000 square feet at the Trueman Boulevard site.

It will join Advanced Drainage Systems, Home2 Suites by Hilton and Drunch, which have announced plans in recent months to open there. TruePointe, a $200 million mixed-use project that is being developed by Equity, also will have a 360-unit apartment complex.

Website: hilliardohio.gov/city-lab

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