The Legal Aspects of Smart Cities in Asia

Currently, many cities around the world are evolving into smart cities. Korea is also making socio-economic and legal efforts for a sustainable smart city. As a Korean legal scholar, I introduce Korean laws and institutions for smart cities. The content of the presentation is largely composed of four parts. First, a system for making urban physical spaces into Smart Cities. In Korea, cities are divided into three stages, and smart cities are being created for each stage; new urban areas, existing urban areas and declining urban areas. Second, a method for providing 'smart services', which is the core of smart cities. Smart services often conflict with existing laws. So, in Korea, we are looking for a way to solve that problem. Third, how to make the basic infrastructure for a sustainable smart city. Nurturing human resources, revitalization of public-private partnership governance, investment (R&D) by the state for innovative growth for smart cities, etc. Fourth, smart city is a global phenomenon. International cooperation and research exchange are important. Let's look at Korea's efforts and role.

Choi Jong-Kwon is a Senior Researcher at the Law Research Institute at Seoul National University in South Korea. He is researching mainly laws and institutions related to urban planning, infrastructure, housing and real estate, and redevelopment etc. As a senior researcher at the Law Institute, he has performed a number of services related to the legal system of the government and public institutions, provided support and advice for legislation and amendments, suggested solutions for legal issues, and given advice on the introduction of new systems etc. Recently, he submitted a paper on Smart City and is participating in a Smart City pilot project in Vietnam.

According to the application of technology in all aspects of life, the growing number of “new entrants” to the bank relating services and the collaboration between banks and fintech, bigtech, etc., it is inevitable for any commercial banks to adopt some level of digital transformation to satisfy the increasingly high demand of customers. This article aims to examine the literature on digital transformation in the banking sector and the current digital transformation situation of commercial banks in Vietnam with some examples of digital transformation of VietNam Joint stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade (Vietinbank) and Tienphong commercial Joint Stock Bank (Tpbank). This article also aims to present the opportunities and challenges of going digital of Vietnam commercial banks sector along with some recommendations to promote the digital transformation of commercial banks. Afterward, the paper concludes that digital transformation is the key for banking industry to meet consumer demands and keep pace with innovation and suggests further research directions.

Son Minh Ha

Associate Professor, Dr. Son Minh Ha is an economic researcher at the Academy of Finance, Vietnam. His research focuses on banking governance, accounting and auditing in banks. He received a PhD in economics from the Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam in 2003 and became an Associate Professor in 2010. His PhD thesis titled: "Solutions for the growth and stabilization of bank credit capital toward the industrialization and modernization of Vietnam”. Son has published and co-authored 7 books and a number of articles. His article “The solutions to complete the banking supervision and inspection system” was published at International conference 2008 “Academy of Finance and Guangxi Financial Economics Institute”. Another article “Impact of international integration on commercial banking system” was published at “International conference 2018 – Proceedings of the sustainable economic development and business management in the context of globalization - Academy of Finance and University of Greenwich”.

Linh Thuy Nguyen

Dr. Linh Thuy Nguyen is an economic researcher at the Academy of Finance, Vietnam. Her research interests focus on the field of banking and finance. Linh got her PhD from Academy of Finance in 2020. Her PhD thesis titled: “Improving the credit risk management capacity of Vietnam Technology and Commercial Joint Stock Bank.” Linh has published a number of articles and co-authored some books in Vietnamese. Her article- “Handling bad debt of commercial banking system for fostering sustainable development national finance” - was published in the International conference: “Restructuring national finance towards rapid, inclusive and sustainable development” – USAID and the Ministry of financed in 2018. Another article––Retail banking development - a strategic business segment of Vietinbank––was published in The Banking Review in 2016.

Dr. Hoang Ly Anh is a Doctor of Juridical Science and currently covers the role of Acting Head of Department for Research Management and Journal Administration at Hanoi Law University. She has been elected as a member of the Board of Advisers of the International Development Law Organisation (IDLO) in 2020. She has extensive professional experience in working with international organisations such as UNDP and UNEP, with Ministries and government agencies including the Viet Nam Environment Agency, Biodiversity Conservation Agency, and non-governmental institutions such as the Netherlands Development Agency. Since 1994, she has been an International Law Lecturer (at both post-graduate and under-graduate levels in Vietnamese and English) teaching, conducting research and writing on international law topics, including general public international law, focusing on law of the seas, international organisations, human rights law and especially international, Vietnamese, and comparative environmental laws.

Thanh Phan is an instructor in Engineering Law at the Faculty of Engineering, University of Victoria, Canada (UVic). His postdoctoral research is co-funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and Canadian Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Advanced Scholar. Thanh Phan worked for the Vietnam Competition Agency (VCA) for ten years as an expert in competition law enforcement, after two years at the Ministry of Justice of Vietnam. Thanh also served as a member of the Vietnamese delegation negotiating Vietnam-EU and Vietnam-Customs Union free trade agreements. He has published journal articles in Canadian Journal of Law and Technology, Houston Journal of International Law, Louisiana Law Review, American Bar Association’s International Antitrust Bulletin, among others. Thanh was educated at Hanoi Law University, Nagoya University, and the University of Victoria.

How can smart cities become truly smart? While there are a number of constituents in this smartness, being data-driven is undoubtedly one of essential factors (Sta, 2016). The increasing visibility of residents and government is both a pre-requisite condition and a consequence of smart city development. To be smart, a city must be run on a set of massively and concertedly collected and processed data, which is to be done on a regular basis. This provides the models to support better decision making and action taking, whose effectiveness would largely depend on the increasingly connected, automated and real-time data collection and analysis. While this is enabled thanks to technological advancement, the question is how the law should balance the requirements for collecting and sharing data with those of state secrecy and people’s privacy. The case study of Vietnam shows that the state’s main concerns and interests strongly influence their approach to this issue, suggesting that balancing points would differ from country to country. This research calls for universal principles on balancing the use and protection of data across countries to facilitate cross-border transactions and communication as well as world connectedness in the era of rapid technological change.

Hong Tran is a legal researcher at the Institute of Legal Studies, Ministry of Justice of Vietnam. Her research interests focus on the process of legal reforms and judicial reforms in Vietnam. Hong got her PhD from Monash University in 2017. Her PhD thesis titled "The Trajectory of Merger Regulation in Transforming Vietnam" applies the varieties of capitalism theories to explore how different political economies shape different model of competition and merger regulation. Hong has published a number of articles and co-authored some books in Vietnamese. Her article "The Choice of Norms in Courtroom Adjudication in Vietnam: In Search of Legitimacy in a Socialist Regulatory Context" was published in the Asian Journal of Law and Society in Jan 2019. Another article, "Legal Pluralism and the Struggle for Customary Law in the Vietnamese Highlands"­ is coming soon in the American Journal of Comparative Law.

To achieve smart city initiatives, governments may often rely on companies to provide services and data. The abundance of real-time data sourced from people everywhere is crucial to the operation of many present day and future services. For instance, improvements and executing package delivery, mobile and internet, and ride-hailing services require significant data. In a recent work, we conducted a 16-month investigation in a small start-up organization’s adoption of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The GDPR is a comprehensive and stringent set of regulations that came into full force in the European Union in 2018 and affects any organization that collects and/or processes data from the European Union. In our investigation, we found that there are significant challenges for a small organization to comply with such privacy regulations. While a small organization may act in earnest to comply with regulations, it faces pragmatic business trade-offs that it must balance. While the enactment of new privacy regulations to more effectively govern the collection of data is inevitable, we must conduct more research for understanding how to better support organizations to prepare for when these regulations come to fruition.

Ze Shi Li is currently a PhD student at the University of Victoria. His research interests involve a broad spectrum of areas including requirements engineering, continuous software engineering, privacy, and software ecosystems. In particular, Ze Shi Li’s research has focused on studying practical software problems in organizations and solving these problems through collaborative research. His recent work has closely studied a small start-up organization’s adoption of the GDPR. Moreover, he has extensive experience conducting empirical research studies with software organizations.