IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

The latest update of the IDC Worldwide Semiannual Smart Cities Spending Guide expects spending on technologies that enable Smart Cities initiatives to reach a value amounting to US$30 billion in 2018 for Asia/Pacific excluding Japan (APeJ).

In a recent statement, IDC said, as these initiatives gain traction, spendings will continue to accelerate over the 2017 to 2022 forecast period, reaching US$54.4 billion in 2022.

Makati City is the lone finalist from the Philippines and the Asia Pacific at this year's World Smart City Awards, its local government said Saturday.

Six cities from six countries are vying for the City Award category, which recognizes a city with "developed global strategies combining projects, initiatives and policy implementations for their citizens."

Competing for the award are Sunderland in the United Kingdom, Cascais in Portugal, İzmir in Turkey, Curitiba in Brazil, and Barranquilla in Colombia. This year, the 2023 Call for Awards received 411 top-level proposals under different categories from 63 countries.

The project entitled ‘E-Government for Women’s Empowerment’ is the first of its kind in Asia and the Pacific to address the gender dimension of e-government by providing new tools to assist governments to design, develop and implement e-services that can respond to the needs of women.

The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), in partnership with the UN Project Office on Governance (UNPOG) of the Division for Public Administration and Development Management, UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), is implementing a new project to help close the online gender gap in the region.

The Asia Pacific region is witnessing a remarkable transformation as smart cities become the new norm. With the rapid advancements in technology, the Internet of Things (IoT) has emerged as a key driver in this revolution. IoT nodes and gateways are playing a crucial role in shaping the future of smart cities across the region.

The rapid, widespread adoption of digital technology, spurred in large part by the COVID-19 pandemic, and its economic and societal ramifications are the key focus of deliberations at a United Nations forum this week.

The Committee on Information and Communications Technology, Science, Technology, and Innovation, which opened today, is set to examine how this digital transformation has brought a number of benefits and opportunities for people, governments and businesses, but also has further widened the digital divide both between and within countries in the region, opening new development gaps and reinforcing a vicious cycle of socio-economic inequalities.

Cities have always been dynamic hubs of culture, education, economic growth and opportunity, and most importantly, centres of social interaction attracting residents and visitors alike.

It is no surprise then that Asia and the Pacific has in recent years become predominantly urban as people seek greater opportunities and services in cities of all sizes, from coastal communities in the Pacific to mega-cities such as Bangkok, Hong Kong and Tokyo, and in smaller towns and emerging urban centres, each with unique characteristics, reflecting our region’s diversity.

“A variety of challenges such as siloed back-end systems, information proliferation and popular demand for efficient online services have combined to drive SOA-related investments in the public sector,” said Balaka Baruah Aggarwal, Senior Manager of Emerging Software for Springboard Research.

With digitalization, open source technology is gaining momentum and governments are increasingly embracing open source solutions. In open government initiatives, open source has led to greater citizen participation and contribution. eGov Innovation speaks to Damien Wong, Vice President & General Manager ASEAN, Red Hat, on how government agencies can tap on open source to foster innovation, accelerate digital transformation and benefit citizens.

Emeritus Professor Jonathan Anderson, Flinders University of South Australia, predicts that knowledge in the form of books and printed matter will rapidly become digitised. Today, full text of over seven million books can be accessed through Google Books. This number is growing quickly as Google expands its digitisation effort with international associations, publishers and authors. Companies such as Amazon.com and Sony are also contributing to this development.

According to the World Bank, around 56% of the world’s population lives in cities. By 2050, this figure is predicted to rise to 70%. This acceleration towards urbanisation is putting city infrastructure under enormous strain. Congested highways, crammed public transport, overworked waste management systems and sporadic urban planning are just a few consequences of our collective influx into cities.

Some cities in the Asia Pacific, such as Singapore, Jakarta and Osaka, have turned to technology to deal with the challenges of growing urban populations. These have become known as “smart cities”, leveraging advancements in sensor technologies, cloud computing and data infrastructure to serve residents, visitors and businesses better.

Tan was speaking following the release of a new FutureGov research report - ‘Government Connectivity, Citizen Engagement and Economic Impact in Asia Pacific’. Cisco partnered with FutureGov to produce the wide-ranging research project into governments in Australia, India, Malaysia and Singapore.

Asia and the Pacific’s phenomenal development has been a story of rapid urbanization. As centres of innovation, entrepreneurship and opportunity, cities have drawn talent from across our region and driven economic growth which has transformed our societies.

In southeast Asia alone, cities generate 65 percent of the region’s GDP. Yet the ongoing scale of urbanization is a considerable challenge, one which puts huge pressure on essential public services, housing availability and the environment.

The report said a wider collaboration among various stake-holders such as government agencies, technology vendors and users, is desired to drive these missions successfully.

Smart city initiatives in the Asia Pacific will not reach their potential if they focus on delivering cutting-edge technologies without paying enough attention to the needs and experiences of citizens, according to a report ‘Smart Cities Success: Connecting People, Proptech and Real Estate’, released by leading real estate consultant JLL on Wednesday.

Guan Cuntai, program manager, intelligent systems for personalized and connected healthcare at the Institute for Infocomm Research (I2R), noted that telemedicine deployment in the region is still in its early stage and yet to enter the mainstream.

TEIN3, currently participated by 18 countries in the Asia-Pacific with direct connectivity to Europe's GEANT network -- the world's most advanced international research and education network -- is also expected to benefit over 45 million users in 8,000 research and academic centres in the region, with their peers in Europe and the rest of the world.

The market for data centre co-location and managed hosting services in Asia Pacific has been strong for almost a decade, driven by the rise in business and internet subscribers. Frost & Sullivan analysts predict growth is likely to continue into the next few years with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 14.6%.

Steve Hodgkinson, Ovum's research director of IT in the Asia-Pacific region, said as smartphones and tablet devices rapidly become ubiquitous in the community and, in turn, emerge as preferred devices for citizens to access both information and interactive online services, government agencies should "actively consider" how these can be provided through mobile applications.

Telemedicine, broadly defined, is the provision of healthcare or medical information and services via communication networks such as telephone and broadband lines. Over the last few years, as broadband initiatives around the world became more pervasive, telemedicine has been "revived and revolutionized", said Sash Murkerjee, senior market analyst, IDC Health Insights Asia-Pacific.

Organizations are already using videoconferencing tools to save money, increase productivity and reduce travel time. Now, the rise of smartphones and tablets is ushering an era of ubiquitous video delivered from specialized high-end telepresence rooms through to personal desktop and mobile devices, Tony Czipak, head of portfolio and partnerships of BT Asia-Pacific, told ZDNet Asia in an e-mail.