In recent years, smart cities have been developed rapidly across the globe and in the Mainland. How can Hong Kong learn from other places in applying smart technologies to deal with various problems, such as ageing population, housing shortage, traffic congestion, air pollution and more? A recent heated discussion in the class brought us inspiration.
In early March, I finished the last lesson of the Master's Degree of smart city for the academic year at the University of Hong Kong. In the lesson, I invited a number of distinguished guests to share their professional knowledge with the students, I also asked the students to present their chosen smart city. They had to use six components, namely people, mobility, economy, government, living, and environment as the analysis framework, while the focus should be on places that Hong Kong could refer to, and the guests would ask them questions on the spot.
Read more: CN: Hong Kong: Data infrastructure is the foundation of a smart city
- There’s a lesson to be learned in officials’ repeated failure to encourage mass adoption of a tech upgrade, be it the ‘Leave Home Safe’ app or digital payments
- They must focus less on the technical aspects of an initiative, and more on making the connection to how the technology improves our lives
When the Hong Kong government pushed restaurant patrons to scan a QR code before being served, many in the city probably considered downloading the “Leave Home Safe” app. Yet many instead choose – whether due to privacy concerns or plain inertia – to scribble their contact details on a slip of paper.
Read more: CN: The real problem with Hong Kong’s flailing smart city plans is not the technology
Global technology powerhouse Siemens AG kicked off a road show for its smart infrastructure truck in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, on Tuesday, aiming to team up with a number of local industry customers and partners to explore cooperation opportunities to build a new ecosystem of smart infrastructure.
The road show will continue its way to Guangdong, Hainan and Fujian provinces and the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region in the coming months, according to the company.
Read more: CN: Guangdong province: Siemens kicks off smart infrastructure road show in Shenzhen
On Hong Kong’s latest Budget, I would like to comment from the following aspects of the innovation and technology (innotech):
1) Nurturing I&T talent
The programs including “Knowing More About IT” for primary schools to enhance students’ interests and knowledge in I&T, as well as regularising the scheme which subsidises local university students studying science and technology to enrol in I&T related internships can surely help to upgrade Hong Kong young people’s IT competency and to nurture more talents for our smart city. Once the economy is back on track, we can seize the opportunity.
Read more: CN: Data infrastructure fundamental to HK's innotech development
A new batch of artificial intelligence (AI) innovation centers with different research priorities will be built in five cities and regions in China, according to the document released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology MIIT on Friday.
The cities and regions are Beijing, Binhai New Area of Tianjin, Hangzhou of East China's Zhejiang Province, Guangzhou of South China's Guangdong Province and Chengdu of Southwest China's Sichuan Province.
Read more: China to build up five innovation areas led by AI innovation: MIIT