During his reception on Thursday for Israeli Ambassador to Viet Nam Nadav Eshcar, Da Nang People’s Committee (PC) Chairman Huynh Duc Tho thanked the Israeli government for its help in the city’s implementation of an e-government system since 2009.

Israeli Ambassador Nadav Eshcar (left) and Chairman Tho

Chairman Tho also asked for assistance from the Israeli diplomat to promote the diplomatic relationship, along with trading and investment links, between Da Nang and Israeli localities in a comprehensive manner.

In particular, the host underlined the importance of accelerating bilateral cooperative ties with Israel’s Haifa City in hi-tech, education and start-up in the years ahead.

In reply, the Israeli guest also highlighted the significance of joint efforts between Da Nang and Israel to organise a wide range of practical activities to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the diplomatic ties between the 2 countries next year.

Also on the same day, municipal PC Vice Chairman Nguyen Ngoc Tuan warmly received a group of representatives from the Japan Transportation Planning Association (JTPA), led by its President, Mr Yasuhiro Nakata.

Vice Chairman Tuan remarked that his locality’s future plans will focus on developing various public transport services to satisfy the travel demand from the city’s growing population, and to ease the current traffic congestion during peak hours.

In reply, Mr Yasuhiro Nakata recommended that Da Nang should develop an automated guideway transit (AGT), which has been successfully applied in such countries as the US, Japan and Singapore.  The Japanese guest added that the application of this model indeed matches with Da Nang’s target of becoming an environmentally-friendly city. 

AGT is a fully automated, driverless, grade-separated transit system in which vehicles are automatically guided along a ‘guideway’. The vehicles are often rubber tired, but other systems including steel wheels, air cushion and maglev systems have also been used in experiments.  The guideway normally provides both physical support, like a road, and the guidance.  In the case of fixed-route systems, the 2 are often the same in the same way that a rail line provides both support and guidance for a train.  For systems with multiple routes, most AGT systems use smaller wheels riding on the guideway to steer the vehicle using conventional steering arrangements like those on a car.

Established in 1957, JTPA is a nonprofit public corporation aims at developing better social infrastructure, particularly the integrated multimodal transportation system and comfortable land-use, following technical innovations and changes in needs of passengers and distribution arms. 

The Japanese corporation specialises in researching, planning, designing, and widely publicising integrated transportation systems and facilities, including roads, railways, railtracks, ports, and airports.