Smart Urban Governance for Sustainable Development: International Experience and Lessons for Vietnam

Smart urban governance has moved from a technology-centred agenda toward a public-value, sustainability-oriented and people-centred model of urban transformation. This paper examines international experience in managing smart cities for sustainable development and derives policy lessons for Viet Nam. Using a qualitative comparative policy analysis, the study reviews academic literature, international standards, global reports and selected city cases, including Singapore, Seoul, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Copenhagen and Curitiba. The findings show that effective smart urban governance depends less on isolated technologies than on integrated institutions, interoperable data infrastructure, measurable sustainability outcomes, citizen participation, resilient finance and safeguards for privacy and inclusion. International experience also indicates that smart-city programmes fail when they are reduced to fragmented pilot projects, vendor-driven platforms or surveillance-heavy urban dashboards. For Viet Nam, where national strategies on sustainable smart cities, digital transformation, green growth and urban development already provide a policy foundation, the central challenge is implementation coherence. The paper proposes a transition from project-based smart-city deployment to mission-oriented urban governance anchored in national standards, local accountability, open data, climate resilience, inclusive service design and diversified urban finance.