Metropoli’s Founder & CEO Dr Alfonso Vegara participated in Vietnam’s inaugural Urban Planning Awards commissioned by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, who is leading the transformation of the country into an economic powerhouse. Dr Alfonso Vegara contributed to the jury process with other key industry leaders ; Dr Vu Tien Loc, President of Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Vice Minister of Construction Madame Phan Thi My Linh and President Dr Chin of Vietnam Urban Planning & Development Association. The high level jury convened in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam from 4-5 April 2019 to review the submissions and looked for projects that are able to serve as important reference points as we witness the awakening of Vietnam cities.

The challenge for Vietnam is not only to attract business investments and global talent to maintain city competitiveness but also to address the key issues of human capital , heritage conservation, innovative urban development, affordable housing, tourism strategies, environmental and ecological sustainability . To this end both Dr Alfonso and Shanmuga Retnam, Metropoli’s Advisor for the region, visited global award winning EcoPark which completely stood apart from the rest of the country. The leadership team of Ecopark led by Mr Pho Tong Giam, Deputy General Director of Ecopark and Mr Nguyen Ngoc Bao Lam, Chief Executive Officer of ECOTEK have a clear agenda to establish best practise and focus on quality of over expansion with a quarter million population target.

Metropoli will be invited to Vietnam in the coming months to follow up with a proposal to profile Hanoi as a Super City. The integration of human intelligence with artificial intelligence is an aspiration of the Hanoi Peoples Committee together with VCCI to create the Cities of The Future.