IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Official spokesman of the housing authority Ibrahim Al-Nashi categorically denied a newspaper report that the South Saad Al-Abdullah project will be moved to another location. He stressed nothing about moving the project was presented to the Korean contractor. He said the housing authority continues the implementation of the project, which is considered as Kuwait’s first smart city. The environmentally-friendly city will be built through partnership between Kuwait and South Korea.

Mayors, politicians and entrepreneurs from across the country are working in coordination with the Arab Forum for Smart Cities to digitally and electronically transform Lebanon with a view to creating smart, or “e-,” cities.

Though the term “e-cities” may conjure up futuristic images of self-driving cars and digitized traffic signals, the forum’s aspirations are much more modest. Smart cities simply use information and communication technologies (ICT) to enhance services such as energy, transportation and utilities.

Smart infrastructure, e-government, and smart mobility are top technology priorities for governments, according to a study from ABI Research.

In an endorsement for smart cities, more than 50% of government agencies reported that public technology adoption should be stimulated, managed, and aggregated at the local or city level, according to a report from ABI Research, released Wednesday.

The Beecham Research declared LoRaWAN the premier low-power wide-area network (LPWAN) technology for smart cities. Titled Leveraging LoRaWAN for Smart Cities: Cost-Effective, Scalable, Sustainable Connectivity, the report emphasises LoRaWAN’s vital role in modern urban environments, showcasing its ability to provide cost-effective and efficient connectivity for various smart applications.

The LoRa Alliance, a global consortium promoting the open LoRaWAN standard, will highlight these findings at the Smart Cities Expo World Congress(SCEWC). Member companies, including Browan Communications, iotech, Miromico, and Tata Communications, will demonstrate how LoRaWAN is revolutionising urban infrastructure. ZENNER will join Tata Communications and the Alliance on the panel titled “IoT Connectivity & Data Insights to Enhance Urban Life.”

• 66 per cent have a strategy for implementation
• 42 per cent of those are thinking of using drones
• 600 smart cities around the world will produce 60 per cent of global GDP by 2025
• Smart city market segment forecast to be worth US$400 billion by 2020s

A new report from the National League of Cities (NLC) in the US shows that two-thirds of US conurbations are now investing in smart city technology and a quarter of those currently without a smart city strategy or system are examining ways to implement them. Of those towns that have invested in smart technologies the top ranking applications and services are smart meters for utilities, intelligent traffic lights and other road traffic systems, e-governance, Wi-Fi kiosks and RFID sensors on pavements and on kerbs.

Eight cities in Turkey are expected to become "smart cities" by 2025, according to an expert.

The smart city is a new approach to urban planning with a goal of connecting everything using technologies which generate data that is used to improve city services and infrastructure and ultimately residents' quality of life.

Myanmar’s last royal capital, Mandalay, was recently ranked by CIO Asia as number fifth among the top 10 cities in Southeast Asia in the process of becoming “smart cities,” a ranking which is based on information from The ASEAN Post, The Economist Intelligence Unit,a the network’s own project profiles and Govlnsider.

Mandalay City Development Committee (MDCD) has drawn up a 30-year urban development plan with a vision to improve the water supply system, wastewater treatment and solid waste management using smart technology. Sensors have been installed on the streets of Mandalay to monitor and control traffic in real time and to monitor the condition of pipelines and water meters as well as a new electronic toll-payment system. The efforts show Mandalay has strong potential to achieve its goal of becoming a “smart city” along with more than 20 other contending ASEAN cities.

Advances in sensor technology and analytics can improve how cities use their parking spaces, which can reduce congestion, enhance air quality and boost revenue.

Parking is a large-scale problem in cities throughout the world, contributing to a host of problems, including congestion, poor air quality and road safety issues. In Paris, drivers spend an average of three years of their lives searching for spots on streets, in lots or in garages. On average, a driver spends between 10 and 20 minutes trying to find a parking place. Drivers who have to hunt for a parking spot every day for work — assuming they work 210 days a year — could spend from 35 to 70 hours searching for that elusive space each year.

According to UN projections, 68% of the world's population will live in urban areas by 2050. As cities grow, municipal governments are investing in infrastructure and applications to improve operations, services for constituents, and the overall urban experience. Composed of the internet of things, "smart cities," aimed to optimize operations, present new security and privacy risks to city leaders and citizens alike.

How do you build a 'smart city?' What innovative factors lead to award-winning smarter technology examples to emulate? Which European city is the smartest? Let’s explore.

The top smart cities in Europe include Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Barcelona.

Or, depending upon who you talk to, what model you use and when you have the conversation, the list can also include Luxembourg and perhaps Vienna.

A marketing initiative in India was met with scepticism once potential investors realised Malta was part of the eurozone, Smart City Malta CEO Fareed Abdulrahman tells The Sunday Times in an interview today.

“We obviously tell them that Malta is different from other Mediterranean members of the euro, we tell them to look at the country’s rating and its economic stability but their concern is Greece, Spain, Italy and the rest of Europe. The perception is there,” he said.

Global spending on smart cities initiatives will total nearly $124-billion this year, an increase of 18.9% over 2019, according to a new forecast

A new forecast from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Semiannual Smart Cities Spending Guide shows global spending on smart cities initiatives will total nearly $124 billion this year, an increase of 18.9% over 2019. The top 100 cities investing in smart initiatives in 2019 represented around 29% of global spending, and while growth will be sustained among the top spenders in the short term, the market is quite dispersed across midsize and small cities investing in relatively small projects.

The MENA region’s population growth is one of the highest globally, and today’s urban environments are under pressure to accommodate more people in smarter ways. This means more than just providing adequate housing. A growing city must take into account the extra pressure on utilities, roads and transport, and other facilities. One recent report notes that the total value of active infrastructure projects in the GCC alone has reached a staggering $1.14 trillion in 2019.

During this historic period of infrastructure planning, it is crucial that such investments are intelligent investments primed for a digital world. Ambitious plans like the Dubai Autonomous Transportation Strategy—aimed at converting 25 percent of mobility means into driverless mobility means by 2030—are setting a clear vision for both the public and private sectors.

Microsoft Vietnam has recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Khanh Hoa Provincial People’s Committee to develop the south-central beach city of Nha Trang into a smart city with a particular focus on tourism.

The cooperation between the two parties is to be implemented from now to 2020 in six fields: infrastructure development; IT application in provincial e-government; IT application in tourism and planning; IT application in education, healthcare, transport, agriculture, e-commerce and industry; training and development of IT human resources; and solutions for information security network safety and intellectual property issues.

Huawei was the Smart ICT Partner of the Arab Future Cities Summit which is the Middle East’s premier smart cities event. In its 3^rd year, the summit has attracted over 300 senior level executives to discuss the progress and future requirements for constructing smart cities across the Middle East.

Milan (Lombardy) has been voted the leading Italian smart city for the sixth consecutive year, according to the ICityRank survey of 107 cities conducted by FPA, a Digital360 company. Lombardy's capital topped the economic and sustainable mobility indicators but fared less well in e-government and environmental protection. Second and third-placed Florence and Bologna closed the gap thanks to good results in social quality, digital transformation and e-government capacity, with Bergamo and Turin rounding out the top 5.

In Mali, the ICT agency (Agence des technologies de l’information et de la communication-AGETIC) will help the Bamako regional development agency (ADR) transform the capital into a smart city. In that regard, the two parties have decided to elaborate an action plan for the various projects.

During the signature of their agreements last week, it was also decided that AGETIC will support ADR in IT training.

Frederico Ma Chi Ngai, president of Science and Technology Development Fund (FDCT) reveals upcoming smart city projects to Macau News Agency (MNA)

Frederico Ma Chi Ngai, president of the Science and Technology Development Fund (FDCT) has told Macau News Agency (MNA) that one of the planned projects involves an application for which the public would be able to track the process of government decisions, such as tenders, through an application.

Speaking to over 100 city leaders across Asia Pacific, Sjostrom highlights the three phases cities generally undergo in leveraging technology to transform citizens’ lives and solve urban challenges.

The urbanisation plan for Port-Louis, the capital of Mauritius, launched in 2016, is proving successful. Two years later, the smart city was ranked as the first African city where life is good.

“By 2020, Port-Louis will be a model to replicate in other cities and villages across the country, and even on the African continent.” This wish expressed on January 16 2016 by Vishnu Lutchmeenaraidoo, the then Mauritian Minister of Finance and Economic Development, seems to be coming true. The urbanisation plan, entitled Port-Louis Smart City, did not wait until 2020 to get its first awards. For the year 2018, the Mauritian capital, with a population of around 150,000, is the first African city where life is good. This is what emerges from the 21st ranking of the world’s cities carried out by the French firm Mercer.