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BRIEFING PAPER
Startup My City: Smart and sustainable cities in Asia
About Startup My City
Building better cities together: citizens benefit from co-creation of smart cities
Leading ASEAN growth with technology
Show me the value: overcoming citizen adoption challenges
Smart and sustainable cities: opportunities and challenges
Smart expectations: Planning smart cities in Asia
Urbanising the 'smart' way
Jakarta smart city: The citizen is our customer
Kuala Lumpur: Smart and connected city
Private players steering change
Singapore: Building a citizen-centric smart and sustainable city
Smart technology for society
Melbourne Kuala Lumpur Bangkok Auckland Yangon Siem Reap Davao City Danang Ho Chi Minh City Chennai Bandung Singapore
In 2015 Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je outlined the vision to build a sustainable city through a mix of green city, public participation, open government and intelligent transportation initiatives. Specific objectives include an expansion of the number of bike paths and bike sharing stations from 196 to 400, as well as a plan to enhance public transport participation from 52% to 80%. To enhance good governance, the Mayor also cited a push towards open data and participatory budget initiatives.
How smart is this city?
Taipei's smart urban housing initiatives, including smart meters for water, electricity and natural gas, as well as the city's Taipei smart card, which enables access to municipal services, have both been cited as good smart city initiatives. The Department of Information Technology (DOIT) has also announced that it is working to create a platform to enhance development of the Internet of Things (IoT), which can include tracking and monitoring of transit, amongst other uses. Due to the variety of smart city initiatives, one advisory board member also selected Taipei as a smart city. Among local residents in the EIU survey, more than one-half (55%) said their city was smart today and the primary benefit was indeed to improve the environment, for instance by reducing vehicular emissions.
Two advisory board members selected Melbourne as a smart city with the primary reasons being the city's fast Internet connections and use of online government services.
The Malaysian government has outlined the Greater Kuala Lumpur (KL) area as one of twelve National Key Economic Areas of the Economic Transformation Program (ETP) with the objective of transforming the capital through the use of technology.
Traffic congestion is one reason that motivates Bangkok to become a smart and sustainable city.
Auckland was fifth on Boyd Cohen's (a smart city expert) list of the smartest cities in Asia-Pacific.
With development in its infancy, Yangon has been described as a particularly promising market for ICT service providers to provide smart city solutions.
Cambodia's gateway city to the ruins of Angkor, including Angkor Wat, is slowly adopting to modern technologies.
The biggest city in the Philippines in terms of land area was also the first in the country to use technology to improve public safety from a smart city perspective.
Operating in the shadows of Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, the country's fifth largest city has led the Vietnam Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI), as measured by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) and the US Agency for International Development (USAID), three years in a row.
In 2015, the World Bank approved the Ho Chi Minh City Green Transport Development Project, which is scheduled to run until 2020, to improve performance and efficiency of infrastructure construction and supervision.
Chennai was selected as a smart city by two advisory board members who cited the technology eco-system, high education quality and various aspects of smart infrastructure as the primary reasons.
Bandung is home to over 80 higher education entities, including the Bandung Institute of Technology (BIT), which is Indonesia's largest technology university and provides the city with access to digital skills.
The city-state of Singapore is frequently considered among the world's smartest cities by experts such as Boyd Cohen and media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal.
Four advisory board members selected Jakarta as a smart city, two of whom mentioned the city's smart transportation initiatives among other reasons.
Seoul ranked 8th (out of 181 cities) in the IESE Cities in Motion Index 2016 by the Center for Globalization and Strategy, IESE Business School, University of Navarra, which evaluates smartness of strategic planning.
Shanghai first published an action plan regarding smart city development in 2011 with a three year extension announced in 2014.
Mumbai was not among the 20 winners in the national India Smart Cities Challenge; however, the city still has ambitious plans. Mumbai was selected as a smart city by three advisory board members who cited availability and demand for fast Internet connections and Wi-Fi as the primary reasons
Manila was ranked 145th (out of 181 cities) in the IESE Cities in Motion Index 2016 by the Center for Globalization and Strategy, IESE Business School, University of Navarra, which evaluates smartness or strategic planning
Two advisory board members selected Hong Kong as a smart city due to its smart transportation systems, online government services, smart cards, public Wi-Fi and adoption of smartphones, and availability and quality of local apps.
Tokyo ranked 12th (out of 181 cities) in the IESE Cities in Motion Index 2016 by the Center for Globalization and Strategy, IESE Business School, University of Navarra, which evaluates smartness or strategic planning.
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