Danang optimizes urban management through Facebook

That is how officials have been using the three-year-old old Facebook group, with the intention of making Danang more convenient, greener, cleaner, and more beautiful.

The public group has become an asset in keeping a green, clean, and beautiful Danang, a forum where people can post their reports on a broken lamppost, a flooded street or an illegal landfill.

Instead of sending letters of complaint, residents simply compose their messages and post on the page, from where the issues will be handled.

On average, the group receives 10-20 messages of this type every day.

Da Nang City officials work with a hotel in Son Tra District two days after a tourist accused it of cheating them on the Facebook group of the city’s urban management office on March 8, 2016.

Not only locals in the city, people from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, or even from overseas, have also joined in offering solutions to the city.

Members of the group have reached nearly 19,000 with more than 10 officials in charge of receiving reports and solving the reported issues.

According to Nguyen Van Duy, vice head of the city’s urban management office, the benefit of managing through Facebook is people can write, take pictures and videos, so authorities can determine the issues right away and find the fastest way to resolve them.

Duy, who founded the group, said he remembers days when local residents had to call to report problems, and so would not take that initiative in every case. Thus, in a meeting three years ago, Duy suggested using social networks for urban management as a way to expedite solutions.

After the Facebook group was set up, the city’s urban management office went from having only 10 staff members to now hundreds to thousands of people who join them in their mission to keep the city green, clean and beautiful.

Thanks to the group, local authorities can follow information about the city wherever they are, regardless of trips outside the city.

Nguyen Van Duy, vice head of the city’s urban management office, says he can work anywhere with his smartphone.

It also helps residents see how officials are working on reported issues, motivating them to work harder.

“The reason that this Facebook page exists and develops is its effectiveness,” Duy said. “The management have reacted quickly to start work whenever they receive information.”

“In this way, the group has become a contribution to the community,” he added.

Ngo Thanh Ha, residing in Hai Chau District’s Phuoc Ninh Ward, said previously, if the sidewalk or drain in front of her house was broken, it would take her a long and complicated procedure to report and wait for authorities to come and fix.

“Sometimes it took a whole month,” she recounted, saying things are different now.

Whenever she sees a poorly maintained road, drain, or lamp, she just needs to take pictures of it and post the image on Facebook, then things will be solved quickly with comments replied to by the appropriate agencies.

Pham Ngoc Minh Thu, another member of the group, said she once reported a restaurant where her friend was ripped off.

“One day later, an inspector from the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism came to work with the restaurant, my friend got her money back and the place received a heavy fine,” she recalled.

“Since the group joined forces with the office, the page has become a more multifunctional and trustworthy source,” Duy said. “For example, there have been cases in which people filed reports to police, who quietly resolved the issues the next day.”

“We have one thing common in our mind, that once we start working on the problems, we must settle them as fast as possible,” he added. “If we know, but don’t solve problems and someone gets hurt, it’s our guilt.”

Tran Chi Cuong, deputy director of Danang City’s Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said he believes in the highly interactive approach of the model to receive citizens’ reports.

“We have received and processed a lot of information related to tourism,” he said. “As people get closer to the government, agencies like this one can also strengthen the trust of the people.”