Singapore tops smart city index for second straight year

FOR the second straight year, Singapore has topped a smart city ranking based on residents' perceptions of their own cities.

The 2020 Smart City Index, devised by the Institute for Management Development (IMD) in collaboration with Singapore University for Technology and Design, was released on Thursday.

It ranks 109 cities based on perceptions of infrastructure and technology in five areas: health and safety, mobility, activities, opportunities and governance. There were 120 residents surveyed per city.

Singapore came close to the top for most indicators in health and safety, activities, and opportunities. The only indicator where it fared worse than the average for cities in the same tier of development was its provision of recycling services.

Singapore also scored closer to the average than the top on indicators such as job creation, residents contributing to decision-making at the local government level, bicycle hiring being able to reduce congestion, and online voting.

Singapore's high ranking does not necessarily mean that it is a role model for other cities, said IMD professor Arturo Bris. "Each city is unique and amongst many factors are characterised by their size, economic development, and whether application of technologies are addressing the specific challenges the city has. As such a single city can provide insights, but can't be used as a blueprint."

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Compared to other similarly-developed cities, respondents in Singapore were less concerned about privacy issues.

They were more willing to concede personal data to improve traffic congestion, and more comfortable with face recognition technologies to lower crime.

More than seven in 10 also felt that the availability of online information has increased their trust in the authorities.

The only other Asian city in the top 20 was Taipei, ranked ninth. European cities took 11 spaces in the top 20, including Helsinki and Zurich in second and third place respectively. Other spots in the top 20 went to Auckland in fourth place, as well as three cities from Australia, two from the US, and Vancouver in Canada.