Second Study Visit of Ha Tinh City, Da Lat City via IURC to Stuttgart Region, Metropolitan Capital City of Rome, Colleferro and Latina – International Urban and Regional Cooperation

10-14 October 2022

The IURC Asia & Australasia programme’s partner cities from Vietnam, including Ha Tinh City and Da Lat City, just completed their second study visit to their EU counterparts, the Functional Area of the City of Colleferro and Latina (Italy) and the Stuttgart Region (Germany). The purpose of the study visit was to:

• strengthen cooperation between IURC pilot city governments, relevant key agencies and partners within the IURC city-to-city partnership;
• familiarise EU cities delegates with the Vietnamese urban challenges and solutions;
• support knowledge exchange and meet with potential collaboration partners to identify specific pilot projects;
• discuss a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to formalise the city-to-city collaboration and cooperation among stakeholders;
• finalise the Urban Cooperation Action Plan (UCAP).

The mission consisted of five days of meetings and field visits to the Metropolitan Area of Rome, the Cities of Colleferro and Latina during 10-12 October 2022, and to the Stuttgart Region (Baden Wurttemberg) from 13-14 October 2022. The team was led by Mr. Ngo Trung Hai, General Secretary, Association of cities of Vietnam (ACVN); Mr. Ton Thien San – Chairman, Da Lat City People Committee, and Mr. Nguyen Van Quy – Vice Chairman, Ha Tinh City People Council. Participating in the mission were 14 delegates from the Da Lat City, Ha Tinh City governments and companies from the private sector. The areas of cooperation for pilot projects were discussed and suggested by the delegation and their counterparts in Italy and Germany, focused on:

• involvement of Metropolitan Area of Rome in the IURC Programme. This helps scale up the IURC visibility and partnership between Vietnamese municipalities with a wide range of municipalities under the Metropolitan Area of Rome;
• the partnership between City of Colleferro, Da Lat City and Ha Tinh City, officially established by a Memorandum of Understanding signed by three Mayors;
• the Business Partnership between the Cethegus Consortium – Latina (Italy), the Chamber of Industry and Commerce of Baden Wurttemberg (Germany), the 5 companies from Da Lat and Ha Tinh to set up agriculture, tourism-agriculture, tourism development and other sector via a signed Memorandum of Understanding between the Cethegus Consortium and 5 Vietnamese companies;
• the University Partnership between Link Campus University and high technological enterprises (Rome, Italy), University of Stuttgart (Baden Wurttemberg, Germany) for technology use in smart-city development, new and green building materials.

A concise summary of the five-day visit to Italy and Germany by the Vietnamese delegation is outlined below.

Day 1: October 10 – Rome & Colleferro (Italy)

Introductory Meeting with the Metropolitan Capital City of Rome as part of the IURC project. Signing ceremony of the MoU for cooperation between the City of Colleferro Municipality and Da Lat City, Ha Tinh City in the following areas:

• Clean energy transition Green Deal;
• Urban renewal and regeneration and social cohesion;
• Innovative, sustainable and carbon neutral ecosystems and strategic sectors;
• Smart city and open innovation;
• Digital transition, Tourism and Culture.

MoU signing ceremony

Visit 1
Meeting with the City of Colleferro Municipality, sharing of good practices in Colleferro related to city-to-city, regional and international cooperation in waste management, innovation, space industries, etc. The meeting served as an opportunity to introduce the activities of ANCI LAZIO (the association of cities in the region of Lazio) to the Vietnamese partners to identify possible synergies with the Association of cities of Vietnam (ACVN).

Meeting with the City of Colleferro Municipality

Visit 2
The delegation visited the Colleferro Recycling Center, which works on processing solid waste (plastic, packages and bottle) with in-house innovative separation and recycling lines. During the visit the possibility of carrying out pilot projects in Vietnam for the separate collection of wood, plastic, glass and paper was discussed.

Colleferro Recycling Center

Visit 3
Visit to the company OMS in Colleferro, a precision mechanics, engineering, assembly company providing molders, components for ABB Sace – a manufacturer of components in electro-mechanics, aerospace and military industries. Cooperation for vocational education has been also discussed.

Visit to OMS

Day 2: October 11 – 2022 Latina (Italy)

Visit 1
Latina Innovation Hub (with interests in learning, exchange the new technological initiatives amongst Vietnamese companies and start-ups from Latina following the open innovation model.

Innovation Hub Latina

Visit 2
Visit to the Selfgarden compost production company. During the visit the possibility of carrying out pilot projects in Vietnam for the collection and requalification of waste from agriculture was discussed.

Visit 3
Interests of business partnership were raised from Da Lat City with the Casale del Giglio winery in Latina

Casa del Giglio winery

Visit 4
Meeting with Latina Functional Area Municipality, Cethegus Consortium – Latina, Lazio Regional Association of SMEs Confindustria on business partnership potentials between Vietnamese and companies in Lazio Region. More than 50 local small and medium-sized enterprises participated to the meeting to define possible cooperation. The meeting provided the stage to define a possible business mission to Vietnam involving Italian companies interested in investing in Vietnam.

See Italian TV newsreel 

See Video with English subtitles

Visit 5
Signing ceremony between Cethegus Consortium and 5 Vietnamese companies, regarding:

a. Clean energy transition Green Deal;
b. Urban renewal and regeneration and social cohesion;
c. Innovative, sustainable and carbon neutral ecosystems and strategic sectors;
d. Smart city and open innovation;
e. Digital transition, Tourism and Culture.

Signing ceremony between Cethegus Consortium and 5 Vietnamese companies

Day 3: October 12 – Rome (Italy)

Visit 1
Meeting with Link Campus University and IoT/Smart City companies from the Lazio Region: Adamantic, Sensoworks and the Cultural Association Re:Humanism. The meeting provided an opportunity to discuss possible cooperation between universities for the exchange of students and researchers and to develop joint activities. Moreover, possible pilot projects have been explored, including the use of IoT and Blockchain technology in urban areas and the creation of an international art prize on the theme of urban development and innovation. The team debriefed on the areas for cooperation and pilot projects in smart city development, technology, urban agricultural trade and tourism promotion.

Day 4: October 13 – Stuttgart (Germany)

Visit 1
Meeting with the Chamber of Industry and Commerce Stuttgart Region. Opportunities for partnership between Vietnamese and German enterprises were shared, particularly in innovation, technology, agriculture and mechanics.

Visit 2
Introductory meeting and visit to the Department of Economics of the Verband Stuttgart Regional Association. Friendship relations between the association of cities of Vietnam, municipalities in Stuttgart Region and Da Lat City, Ha Tinh City is emphasized for long-term cooperation.

Visit 3
Meeting with County of Rems-Murr. Experiences in waste management were presented and discussed.

Visit 4
Visit to the bio-digestion plant, waste disposal site (landfill) and recycling center Backnang. Practices of non-organic waste recycling were discussed, as well as how the landfill site was closed to create a new space for the community in Backnang.  Experiences and know-how were shared in terms of at-source separation organisation, organic waste treatment, non-organic recycling and landfill-closure technologies.

Recycling Center Backnang

Day 5: October 14 – Stuttgart (Germany)

Visit 1
Meeting with the University of Stuttgart and Fraunhofer Institute of Building Physics on climate adaptation and sustainable building materials, Rebumat and Camarsec Projects between the University of Stuttgart and Vietnamese counterparts. Potential actions are discussed around the universities, institutes in Stuttgart and Da Lat, Ha Tinh for developing new building materials from waste and natural sources.

Debriefing discussions for the visits to Stuttgart were focused on possible pilot projects in technologies for solid-waste treatment, building materials from waste products, partnership in urban agriculture and technological training.