For smart cities, the future is regional

IN November 2019, South Korea announced the launch of a consultative council on smart city projects with the 10-member Association of South-east Asian Nations (Asean). This comes on the back on ongoing efforts by the US and China to engage with the Asean Smart Cities Network (ASCN).

Proposed by Singapore, the ASCN was launched in April 2018 to facilitate smart, sustainable and technologically-enabled urban development across Asean. It also aims to encourage greater cooperation among Asean members in smart city development, catalyse bankable projects with the private sector, and secure funding and support from Asean's external partners.

With the formation of the ASCN and growing interest from major powers such as the US, China and Korea, smart city development is no longer simply a matter for mayors and municipal leaders. It has in fact taken on a regional character, with significant implications for the practice of economic diplomacy in Asia.

ASEAN CENTRALITY

Even before the ASCN was launched, Asean had already cemented its position at the centre of trade and economic development in East Asia.

This began with the Asean Free Trade Area, which allowed for the formation of various 'Asean Plus' Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with China, Japan and Korea and culminated in broader multilateral trade vehicles such as the Asean Plus Three framework and the proposed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).

This central importance of Asean in regional trade and economic dynamics is known in international relations as 'Asean centrality'. Whether in terms of the Asean Plus Three framework or the RCEP, trade regionalism has become strongly centred on Asean.

Seen in this light, the formation of the ASCN and subsequent efforts by Asean members to draw major regional economies into the fold represent a natural evolution of Asean centrality. With the emergence of a new digital economy, it is only natural that regional flows of data, capital and ideas retrace routes that regional trade had hitherto taken.

Through the ASCN, Asean can therefore continue to enjoy a significant extent of centrality in the new digital economy. Like the RCEP or the Asean Plus Three framework, the ASCN can serve as a powerful platform through which Asean can engage other major economies. This will provide smart cities in the Asean area with access to a larger pool of capital and markets.

Aside from these economic benefits, the ASCN can also help Asean members obtain less tangible advantages such as knowledge, technology and, perhaps most importantly, data. Such technological and knowledge transfers will be particularly important as Asean members engage with more mature technology sectors in economies such as China and the US.

From a policy perspective, this means that economic diplomacy in the new digital economy will differ markedly from the old economic diplomacy. Rather than focusing on economic gains - as encapsulated by trade data and combined GDP figures - the new digital economic diplomacy will need to focus on the epistemic and technological enhancements that will come with regional cooperation.

For smart cities, mayors and municipal leaders will need to take on important diplomatic roles on top of the day-to-day grind of running a city.

Indeed, global platforms such as the World Cities Summit and the C40 Cities Climate Leadership already provide mayors with a means through which they can network and collaborate. The ASCN will provide municipal leaders and policymakers in Asean with yet another valuable platform for enhancing their efforts at smart city development.

For Singapore, such efforts at smart city collaboration and the new digital economic diplomacy are not new. Indeed, the city-state has long sought to engage with other cities across the region in its smart city development efforts.

This include engagements with China to establish smart and sustainable cities in Tianjin and Chongqing. While the Amaravati project with India has recently been aborted, the fact that it had even been conceived of in the first place suggests growing demand for Singapore's expertise in building smart city infrastructure.

Singapore's ongoing efforts at smart city cooperation also belies its key position as Southeast Asia's leading smart city and FinTech hub. According to an Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) report that was published earlier this year, Singapore hosts the largest number of FinTechs in South-east Asia. It has also demonstrated significant success in establishing the necessary urban infrastructure for smart city development.

Having enjoyed its central position as the leading trade hub and global financial centre in South-east Asia, Singapore is therefore poised to become the leading provider of smart urban solutions for the region as well. This can only help catalyse the growth and expansion of smart cities across the Asean area.

THE FUTURE IS REGIONAL

As the examples of Singapore and the ASCN show, the future of smart city development is truly regional.

Given the highly integrated nature of the new digital economy and the speed with which data and capital now flow across national boundaries in smart city development, Asean's smart cities will benefit from closer economic and technological cooperation, whether among themselves or with external economies such as China, the US and Korea.

Furthermore, the possibility of technology and knowledge transfer suggests good opportunities for policy learning among Asean's urban policymakers. As smart cities continue to proliferate across Asia, mayors and municipal officials will benefit immensely from the sharing of policy best practices among their foreign counterparts.

For mayors and municipal-level officials, this means an ever-greater need for the honing of diplomatic and networking skills.

No longer is urban policy solely a domestic policy concern. Rather, it has become a collaborative endeavour that taps a broader network of smart cities, in the process transforming the regional economic architecture.