Authorities in Hanoi have set a target that every commune, ward, and town will feature a public loudspeaker system capable of communicating important announcements to the public, reviving a long-standing practice that has been limited over the past five years.

The re-development of various public loudspeaker systems is part of a recently approved plan to implement a basic information development strategy in the capital city during the 2022-25 period.

Under the strategy, the city will develop a modern and synchronous information network which ensures connection and unity in the provision of information from the municipal government to citizens across the metropolis.

Accordingly, the municipal administration aims to install a public loudspeaker system in each of the capital’s 579 communes, wards, and townships from now until 2025 in order to disseminate important information directly to residents.

Local authorities believe that these loudspeaker systems will enable them to reach all residential groups in their jurisdictions, and improve efficiency in the dissemination of political, economic, and social information to the public.

Public loudspeaker announcements in wards, communes, and towns are a longstanding tradition that has lasted throughout both peacetime and wartime in Vietnam, and have long been considered an essential route for delivering information from the city government to its citizens.

In 2017, the Hanoi administration began limiting its use of public loudspeakers, noting that it had 'completed its missions' by creating various other routes for the public to access important information.

A survey conducted the same year showed that most Hanoi residents agreed that such loudspeakers were no longer necessary and, as a result, their use has since been confined to a small number of residential areas in the city.

The newly released plan intends to walk back the minimal use of local loudspeakers and reposition them as an important part of the Vietnamese capital’s information-sharing efforts.

In addition, every commune, ward, and town will have a website which will disseminate essential information and interact with people, and 100 percent of wards and townships, as well as approximately 70 percent of communes will also host public electronic bulletin boards for the same purposes.

Hanoi strives to build a central information system by 2023 in order to provide essential information to all of its administrative units so that public offices at the municipal and district levels can provide essential information via the system by 2025.

The city aims to quip 100 percent of its districts and towns with large public LED or LCD bulletin boards by 2025.

In addition, 100 percent of commune-level radio stations will be equipped with advanced information and telecommunications technologies by 2025 and will use artificial intelligence (AI) technology combined with big data processing technology to produce radio programs using text converted to voice.

In order to reach these targets, the city will focus on three key missions, namely building and developing advanced infrastructure for broadcasting, modernizing content production in broadcasting, and improving the quality of human resources in broadcasting.

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