Being smart about living in cities

EUROPE has a highly urbanised population, with 78 per cent of its citizens living in cities, and 85 per cent of the European Union's GDP generated from cities. Many European cities have been transitioning into low-carbon, resource-efficient and competitive economies.

Yet, it has not been easy to link and upgrade infrastructure, technology and services in key urban sectors, due to challenges such as a fragmented market, financing obstacles, and a lack of business model innovation.

In recognition of such challenges, the European Commission has initiated a European Innovation Partnership on Smart Cities and Communities to guide the development of smarter cities.

Many European countries have set their respective sustainability and environmental goals which have come to form the basis of their Smart Cities endeavours.

Opportunities for Singapore companies

Singapore firms can ride on the country's reputation as one of the world's top smart cities and an established player in urban solutions and sustainability.

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The Asean Smart Cities Network, established during Singapore's Asean chairmanship in 2018, also provides opportunities for EU firms interested in the region.

With the EUSFTA granting improved access to city-level and municipal-level government procurement opportunities in Europe, Singapore firms can bring their smart city expertise to bear in areas such as telecommunications, maintenance and repair services, and waste management.

SWEDEN

Sweden, which was ranked first in the 2020 edition of the Sustainable Development Report, has invested heavily in areas like climate, energy and environment, mobility, digitalisation, urban planning and social sustainability.

The country's capital, Stockholm, aims to be free of fossil fuels and "climate positive" by 2040.

The Swedish government welcomes international investors to co-create solutions with Swedish companies through a public platform called Smart City Sweden.

In 2019, the Nordic Innovation House in Singapore was also opened, to help connect businesses in Singapore and the Nordic countries, including Sweden.

CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE

Cities in Central and Eastern European countries such as Poland and Romania are in the process of implementing smart city plans and are keen to learn from Singapore's Smart City and Smart Nation experience.

Generally, larger cities benefit from the strong technical capability of their own domestic companies. They typically look for innovative solutions and case studies of implementation of digital technologies such as e-payments, data analytics and 5G.

Smaller cities, on the other hand, tend to require more infrastructure and hardware solutions which include renewable energy projects, water and waste treatment, and smart metering.

In 2014, the Polish capital Warsaw began to work on the Virtual Warsaw project, an Internet-of-Things-enabled initiative to help the visually impaired make their way around the city.

In 2019, the Visegrad countries of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia signed an agreement for collaboration in the area of smart cities.