Smart cities with their ability to harness technology to improve planning and efficiency of service delivery along with their governance and effective urban management are key to achieving a sustainable future. Currently, there are 26 cities across ASEAN piloting smart city projects, as part of the ASEAN Smart Cities Network initiative.
Recent trends and initiatives
Digital tools
The City Possible programme in Thailand, which is devised to make technology work for people by coordinating with key stakeholders to address urban problems, has inducted 27 Thai smart cities. It enables members to have access to a global community of academics, non-government organisations, businesses and urban leaders, as well as exclusive invites to an array of knowledge exchange seminars where participants can discuss common challenges, share their learning and develop holistic urban solutions. Businesses in Thailand are increasingly adopting digital tools such as artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing and next-generation digital platforms to enhance their efficiency. These businesses are supported by the active development of the country’s information and communication technologies (ICT) infrastructure. Mobile and real-time digital activities such as e-commerce, fintech and online entertainment are readily embraced as part of people’s changing lifestyles in Thailand. Another initiative is True Digital Park, which serves as a centre for digital innovations and start-up operations. True Digital Park is managed by the National Innovation Agency and the corporate sector and is considered the largest start-up park in Southeast Asia. In accordance with Thailand 4.0, the country aims to achieve 100 smart cities by 2024.
In addition, businesses are being encouraged to deploy the application of AI in digital transformation to promote internal strengths and increase competitiveness. The expansion of 5G technology allows data collected by internet of things (IoT) applications to be transmitted in real time to central monitoring locations or other connected devices in smart cities. Langkawi in Malaysia has deployed a smart signal system that uses high-definition videos and AI to identify traffic situations.
A lot of focus is on building products and applying AI with practical value.To build Ho Chi Minh City into the centre of Vietnam and the region for research, development, and transfer of applications in AI, Hanoi has started the iParking app for drivers and is looking to venture into smart solutions in healthcare, education, transport and tourism. Danang city is being planned as a green city through the adoption of smart solutions and has begun developing its natural disaster management systems that set it apart from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. It is planning to become the first smart city in Vietnam and has placed emphasis on attaining five capabilities to become a comprehensive smart city: development of cloud computing infrastructure, utilisation of big data, building of data centres, erection of security centres, and establishment of an open data ecosystem. The cost-effectiveness approach of these Vietnamese cities is highly relevant to developing peers in ASEAN with limited resources.
The Philippines government has been pushing the adoption of smart city technologies. The Philippine Department of Information and Communications Technology has developed the e-government masterplan 2022 to promote the adoption of e-government services. Baguio city has recently announced investments to transition into e-government using ICT and other web-based telecommunication technologies, such as crowd density monitoring and real times weather prediction to improve the delivery of public services.
Open data ecosystem
Open data portals help in developing smart and sustainable urban development and empower cities to meet equity goals and expand mobility services into rural and underserved areas. Open data specifications encourage collaboration in smart ways and cities will continue to leverage best practices in open source to provide the best services they possibly can. In Singapore, there is an open data ecosystem where data sets collected by government agencies are publicly available and accessible through online portals. It allows residents and businesses to co-create smart city applications that respond to the needs of the people more effectively. To address residents’ land transport needs based on the data provided by the Land Transport Authority, more than 40 mobile apps and services have been developed.
The City Planning Labs (CPL) initiative under the Indonesia Sustainable Urbanisation Trust Fund seeks to strengthen local governments’ data foundation and leverage digital intelligence within existing urban systems. CPL has worked collaboratively with a number of city agencies over the years to develop its Municipal Spatial Data Infrastructure which is an ecosystem approach that integrates various urban planning and management tools, knowledge, and action plans under a four-pillar framework: institutions, people, data and systems. Under this ecosystem, data sets can be properly integrated and serve as a powerful tool to accelerate evidence-driven city planning and management. Cities such as Balikpapan, Denpasar, and Semarang have established data governance frameworks in the form of One Data Mayoral Decrees that have created the framework for institutional arrangements to break data silos and promote inter-agency collaboration and data sharing.
Carbonomics
Many cities are making efforts to change their carbon footprint as cities leverage their carbon footprint as a type of currency to encourage human life and reduce the carbon footprint. For instance, ride-hailing companies Gojek and Grab are testing out as many as 300 electric motorbikes in Indonesia to find out how much energy those electric vehicles can save as compared to traditional motorcycles. While this is a commendable move, it could be more impactful if the ride-hailing apps show how much carbon the different types of cars (e.g., a diesel-run vehicle versus an electric car) emit for a trip to encourage consumers to make the eco-friendlier choice.
Response to Covid-19
The pandemic has brought about opportunities for smart cities worldwide to adopt an agile approach. Smart facility management, IoT, and surveillance have become the symbols of a smart nation as they create advanced, safe and liveable urban environments despite the pandemic. These smart city solutions have also doubled as preventive efforts to curb the viral contagion.
Jakarta city has deployed a wide array of smart applications in its transport curtailment efforts during the lockdown. The city had also developed a system that tracks mobile phone pings to cell towers to monitor crowds during festival celebrations and monitor the movement of polluting vehicles. Besides, an AI system coupled with a surveillance and early warning system in Bandung city helps build the resilience of the urban population against increasing Covid-19 cases.
The way forward
Cities across the Southeast Asian region are increasingly adopting low-cost, high-impact smart solutions to address urban development. There are some challenges that need to be addressed such as insufficient resources and planning, lack of capacity building opportunities for city practitioners and the digital divide among citizens. Collaboration between the public and private sectors can accelerate the process of transforming smart cities as governments have the access and power to effect change while the private sector is driven by a commitment to be part of the solution.
