Loke Siew Yeng

MORE than a decade since the idea of smart cities emerged, the concept has become more nuanced in a shift to meet new goals and overcome challenges that have appeared along the way. Instead of a strong focus on technology, from 5G to the Internet of Things (IoT), many city planners are looking to get citizens more involved in creating a ground-up, organic and human-centred approach. While each city differs in its approach to creating a more sustainable and liveable urban environment for citizens, most cities are also equipped with years of experience to draw on in optimising the technologies they can embed to tackle their pressing challenges. These are among the takeaways from the latest Digital Cities Index (DCI) 2022 developed by Economist Impact and supported by NEC. The report looked at four key pillars — connectivity, services, culture and sustainability — to assess the extent and impact of digitisation in 30 global cities.

In terms of connectivity, measured by comprehensive, high-quality and reliable Internet links that are the foundation of digital service delivery, Copenhagen and Singapore top the charts. They are followed by Zurich, Beijing and Sydney. It is clear that city planners understand that the underlying infrastructure has to be set up for digital services, from e-government to financial services, to flourish. All but one city in the index have a 5G strategy in place either at the national or local level. However, there is still a gap in many cities when it comes to having the right connectivity levels for digital transformation. Half of the cities in the index score below 70 out of 100 in on this benchmark, though the pandemic has prompted many cities from Washington DC to Jakarta to bolster investments in connectivity, such as offering free Wi-Fi or adding hotspots. No matter what stage of the digital highway rollout they are at, city planners will have a choice – to either build the roads first and expect the traffic to come later, or build them incrementally as demand grows.