Smart Village: Solutions for Sustainable Development of Rural Areas in EU, Lesson Learnt for Vietnam

One of the solutions towards achieving the higher commitments of the Sustainable Development Goals is to find appropriate ways to address economic inequalities, climate change, accessibility access to modern technologies and other necessary infrastructure. While the concept of smart city has been studied well such as "Smart City", the concept of "Smart Village" is still a matter of debate among scholars, researchers and policy makers. In fact, in recent years, the rural areas of the EU are facing increasing difficulties and challenges, which are the increasing decline of the rural population, the ongoing trend of population aging. In addition, income disparities are widening between rural and urban residents (GDP per capita in rural areas is 66% in EU-28 compared with 118% in urban areas). The proportion of people living in rural areas at risk of poverty and lack of social cohesion is higher in cities with 22.4% of the population compared with 21.3% in urban areas. Besides, in many remote rural areas, it is difficult for them to access public services, etc. With an objective to implement initiatives based on the global trend of building smarter and more sustainable communities, the European Union has launched an action program called “Smart Villages” in 2017. Accordingly, Smart Villages are understood as communities in rural areas that use innovative solutions to demonstrate resilience by exploiting local strengths and opportunities. Rural communities will rely on a participatory approach to implement development strategies to improve economic, social and environmental conditions on the basis of applying technology platforms and solutions. Models aimed at ensuring rural areas will continue to play an essential role in creating a stronger, resilient community, leading to more prosperous development.