HCMC – The Australian government has announced a AUD440,000 (US$321,700) sponsorship for a digital transformation project in Vietnam to help the latter cope with incidents and disasters.
Under the Aus4Innovation program, Australia will sponsor AUD1.4 million for four hi-tech digital transformation projects in Vietnam through cooperation with the Vietnamese Ministry of Planning and Investment, Thanh Nien newspaper reported.
Of them, the project on digital transformation in dealing with natural disasters and rescue will be implemented by Australia’s University of Technology Sydney and Vietnam’s Le Quy Don Technical University.
Vietnam is facing significant impacts of climate change and some 70% of its population is living in coastal and low-land areas, which are at high risk of flooding.
Over the past two decades, Vietnam has been hit by hundreds of storms, including strong ones, causing heavy human and property losses. Recently, mountainous areas in the north, central and Central Highlands regions have witnessed serious landslides and floods, causing multiple difficulties for the rescue work.
To implement the project, at the end of 2021, the University of Technology Sydney and Le Quy Don Technical University coordinated with the office of the National Committee for Incident and Disaster Response and Search and Rescue to hold a seminar on digital transformation in disaster response, search and rescue.
Professor Eryk Dutkiewicz from the University of Technology Sydney said through the project, Australia would transfer unmanned aerial vehicles integrated with artificial intelligence, which will quickly detect victims of natural disasters.
Australia will also transfer technology in building scenarios in a three-dimensional space to train forces participating in the search and rescue work.
According to Associate Professor Dr Le Ky Nam from Le Quy Don Technical University, the two universities will jointly develop aerial and remote sensing monitoring technology and join hands with the National Committee for Incident and Disaster Response and Search and Rescue to formulate a system to train search and rescue forces in line with the conditions in Vietnam.
