Girding up for adaptive living

THIS WEEK'S TOPIC: What do you see as the most important change cities must make, to be resilient to future shocks?

Ng Wee Wei Country Managing Director Accenture Singapore

The future for cities rests in combining new technologies, citizen-centric solutions, and data-driven governance. These are crucial components to building socially inclusive societies that are economic growth powerhouses and drivers of sustainable developments. By leveraging cutting-edge technologies, cities can unlock new possibilities of connected infrastructure and layers of intelligence that can continuously learn, adapt and respond to evolving citizen needs. These citizen-centred experiences and services require collaboration across both private and public sectors. Cities must start empowering co-creation between citizens, businesses, academia and the government to lead in civic innovation. This strategy is the way forward to accelerating the impact of citizen-centred approaches and creating a city that is resilient, responsive and responsible.

TC Ng Managing Director, Greater Asia HP Inc

Cities are a mesh of rich, interconnected ecosystem players, each with their own strengths and unique insights. The pandemic demonstrated that cities partnering best within those ecosystems were also able to respond with the most agility. Collaboration between government, business, educational institutions and civil society to anticipate, plan, and execute will be key to building resiliency, whether it's driving digital transformation, shoring up sustainability, 3D printing personal protective equipment (PPE) or making use of technology to close the digital equity gap.

Lawrence Loh Director, Centre for Governance and Sustainability NUS Business School

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Being future-proof and shockproof will be the key hallmark of new cities. For too long, cities have developed in random uncoordinated ways, often in hasty response to economic growth. The pandemic, or even endemic crisis, presents a fundamental breakpoint to go back to the drawing board. It will not be just about brick and mortar. It is more about how humans can live, work and play in the synergistic physical and virtual spaces. This is the next disruption that will present new opportunities and risks for businesses. And it should go beyond human livings. It is back to sustainability, and relates to a most critical and often downplayed linkage to biodiversity and more broadly, nature.

Victor Mills Chief Executive Singapore International Chamber of Commerce

The current pandemic provides city authorities everywhere with many lessons. Chief among them is the importance of good governance, in the broadest sense of the term, relentlessly focused on delivering positive outcomes and quality public service. Cities must plan for future pandemics and other shocks brought about by climate change. They will either need facilities which can be quickly repurposed or provide for enough land and space for facilities to be built in times of need. The residents of cities everywhere should elect and hold their leaders to account both for good governance and quality public service at all times.

David Kuo Co-founder The Smart Investor

The next ''black swan'' event is unlikely to be anything like the present one, or the one before that. It might not even be a pandemic but something that we cannot possibly envisage right now, or at any time. But that should not stop us from thinking about what is possible, rather than what will be. In that regard, flexibility and adaptability in terms of human resources are crucial. Organisations cannot function effectively without people, and people might not always be where they are needed, when they are needed. We could stop pigeonholing employees into certain roles. Instead, a more ad hoc structure can foster creativity in good times, and adaptability in future shocks.

Sebastian Kruger Vice President, APAC Paessler

Covid-19 has starkly shown that for cities to be resilient to future shocks, be it from the pandemic or other causes, they have to be well-run. Transforming conventional cities into smart cities will be critical in mitigating shocks that will come from various shocks, especially climate change. While technology is pivotal in making smart cities more efficient, sustainable and progressive, the ability to monitor these technologies and obtain data of the city is more important in managing climate-related shocks that will stem from population change, resource scarcity, and health and safety. In earthquake-prone Japan, monitoring bandwidth operations ensures smooth traffic for disaster recovery. In Mexico City, monitoring Wi-Fi poles used for earthquake warnings and public panic buttons is reflective of how infrastructure can serve multiple purposes to lower cost and help cities be resilient to future shocks.

Josephine Ong MD, Asia Pacific South Dassault Systemes

Cities are complex systems of systems - from infrastructure to transportation to housing to services. As cities face the demands of globalisation, rapid urbanisation and climate change, they need to plan carefully for sustainable growth, taking a holistic approach to urban design while continuing to provide citizens a better quality of life.

Cities can benefit greatly from 3D collaborative technology, to model, analyse, simulate and visualise planning in a virtual environment across various government agencies. A data-driven virtual twin that reflects the constantly evolving urban environment provides a solid foundation for coherent city planning, policy decision-making, and infrastructure management that grows with the city.

More than half of Asia lives in cities today, with 1.2 billion new urban residents expected in the next two decades. Dynamic city virtual twins will provide a better means for visualising and testing the repercussions of future planning decisions for sustainable and resilient cities.

Max Loh Managing Partner, Singapore and Brunei Ernst & Young LLP

The pandemic that came amid the escalating climate crisis underscores the urgency to address the dual challenges of urbanisation and sustainability. To become smart cities - in both hardware and ''heartware'' - is the single most important imperative. Cities need to be smart in integrating infrastructure with technology, for example, using sensors to collect and harness data for better predictive responses and planning capabilities against sustainability risks. Creating digital twins will also allow city planners to simulate plans that protect against future shocks before implementation. The infusion of technology into everyday life and the environment must be met with citizen trust and digital readiness, to ensure inclusion in participating in and enjoying the upsides of smart cities, and that the digital ecosystem is secure and resilient across society.

Jeffery Tan Group General Counsel and Chief Sustainability Officer Jardine Cycle & Carriage

Pre-Covid, cities were places that primarily supported urban activities. There were designed to function with a just-in-time paradigm that assumed swift global connectivity and easy movement of people and goods within cities and across borders. The pandemic has shown that cities of the future will need to be multimodal: Having the ability to be hubs for residential purposes, commercial and business activities; yet self-sustaining in the production of food, products and the provision of local leisure and vacation offerings to populations that will increasingly experience frequent lockdowns and restriction of movement as a norm.

Thriving cities of the future will be those that have a myriad of attractive global offerings - all found in one local place - enabling people to learn, work and have the ability to live rich and fulfilled lives with minimal travel.

Wendy Johnstone SVP & COO APAC Zendesk

If the pandemic has taught us anything, it is that we need to be agile and easily adaptable to change. Becoming hyper-prepared with robust contingency measures for any scenario is a tall ask - but if we're agile enough to foresee potential threats and prepare accordingly, then we're already a step ahead. One of the key aspects to make this possible - whether in business or when making changes to modern cities - is creating standards that eliminate rigid processes or siloed information, which may hinder efficiency and the ability to scale.

Enhancing agility is the key to responding to evolving human needs and expectations, and it is also key to designing modern cities that can withstand the aftershocks of unforeseen situations.

Seah Kian Peng Group CEO FairPrice Group

Singapore has been used to a mindset of being frugal and efficient with our resources.

For a city, these virtues can be the enemies of resilience. Resilience requires a cushion, an extra provision. For example, resilience to severe rainfall will require us to put aside more land for canals. And yet in Singapore, property and land prices are very highly-priced market assets. So, I think the first step towards a resilient city is to rethink the economic pricing of national resources, or to price in such values as resilience to shocks. Another is to ensure that our people develop an adaptable and tough attitude, which will allow us to take short-term hardships well so that even when infrastructure fails, our spirit does not.

Ronald Chan Founder and CIO Chartwell Capital

A city has to be smart and nimble enough to think small and big at the same time. In a closed system like during a lockdown, a city must have the online and offline intra-connected infrastructure to conduct commerce among its local communities efficiently. This requires the government to balance, promote and support different job varieties so that the division of labour enables the city to be self-sustainable. Then, to think big, the city must, via its excess output, be able to conduct trade and commerce efficiently with the outside world through its online and offline inter-connected infrastructure. This way, the city would have the comparative and competitive advantages to thrive internationally.

Ben King Country Director Google Singapore

In the last one year, we have been in a state of change, experimentation and transformation to reimagine a post-pandemic future. If there's a mantra that we have learnt, it would be ''flexibility in the face of change''. Future city communities must be able to stay resilient and accommodate maximum flexibility by leveraging the potential of technology to reimagine the way we live, work and play. As leaders, our responsibility is to foster a culture that encourages learning agility and willingness to rethink and innovate in the face of any and all future shocks.

Yoshiyuki Hanasawa EVP, Chief Regional Officer, Asia-Pacific and India Mitsubishi Heavy Industries

As cities continue to expand, they must transition to cleaner energy for sustainable growth and resilience. To do this, they should identify an optimal energy mix by assessing all aspects of development by using an index - such as MHI's QoEn index - and implement efficient energy infrastructure that maximises renewable energy use and supports growth.

Cities should also introduce carbon-neutral fuels, such as blue or green hydrogen, into their energy mix. Hydrogen has immense potential to enable greater renewable energy utilisation and to decarbonise every part of the economy - which is why MHI continues to innovate and explore ways to help establish a robust global hydrogen value chain.

Melanie Cook Managing Director, APAC Hyper Island

Referencing our Future Mapping course, we look closely at how to finance the transition to more sustainable, resilient smart cities, and to quote one of our learners: ''(For developers) in the future, there is no profit in build and run, you have to be in it for the long term.'' Post-pandemic, building design has to respond to how we live and work to make human life easier and better. In our ''remote everything'' future, we work, play, learn, heal and bond from home; so our homes will have to do much more to stay relevant to our emerging needs. With an ageing population, we can expect multiple generations to start to live together even more to reduce housing shortages. This is the sort of critical thinking that is needed to not only decipher what a sustainable, resilient smart city should be, but also what new trends need to be considered. The industry needs to ask itself what it will do to respond to these structural changes.

Long Jek Aun Singapore Office Head Simmons & Simmons JWS Pte Ltd

To be more resilient to future shocks, cities need to strike a more dynamic balance between self-sufficiency and interdependence, even more so for city-states. Sustainable development must be tempered with preventing and mitigating against the vulnerability of cities to shocks and stresses, centred on protecting lives and livelihoods at heart.

Tan Hian Hong VP, Division Underwriting Manager FM Global Asia

It is vital that cities embrace the complexity of an evolving risk landscape, created by the convergence of climate, public health and cyber risks to people, property and systems. That involves maintaining an awareness of the threats to buildings, facilities and the technology that manages critical functions, as well as those posed by disruption to global supply chains. Singapore is Asia's most resilient country, but a neighbouring country's vulnerability can be another's costly business disruption, given social and economic interconnectivity. Singapore is an example of how to build in resilience to support growth, but the resilience gap between it and other countries requires vigilance.

Kim Byung Kwon Director KOTRA Singapore

Cities need to welcome global collaboration as an engine to drive smart city strategies and urban redevelopment. For example, Busan is piloting the use of data and augmented reality to achieve 100 per cent energy self-sufficiency, using renewable energy sources and innovative city-bots for smart water management. Countries can benefit from such case studies to future-proof their smart city developments with a focus on improving the well-being of citizens. I believe it is imperative for countries to collectively promote innovation and effectively solve urban problems together for a future of more sustainable and liveable cities.

Kumail Rashid E-mobility Division Lead, Asia-Pacific ABB

To really be resilient to future shocks, cities have to be flexible and adaptable to accommodate change. In a resource-scarce future, cities of tomorrow will reimagine every aspect of urban living, and one of the biggest disruptions to the norm of city operations will be electrification. Transport networks which run through entire cities are one of the crucial elements, and an open mindset to embrace urban transportation will be pivotal. The change will start with scaling up our electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure to ensure that it is widely available, affordable and seamlessly integrated into homes, malls, energy management systems and more.

Chia Ngiang Hong President Real Estate Developers' Association of Singapore (REDAS)

An anticipatory and proactive plan to build resilience into cities' urban systems and operations to mitigate and better prepare for potential crisis is crucial. It is most important to have an all-encompassing continuity and crisis management plan involving close private-public-people sector collaboration supported by a robust digital infrastructure and inter-operable platform. Urban planners need to integrate sustainability and climate resilience planning, as well as imbibe flexibility in land and building use that can be implemented quickly in times of emergencies. With long-term strategic infrastructure and investments, as well as transformational plans to enhance urban systems and capabilities/skillsets, cities will be better prepared and more responsive and resilient to future shocks.

Donald Han Chief Executive Officer Sabana Real Estate Investment Management Pte Ltd

We have learnt from the current widespread and acute disruption to work, consumption, and leisure patterns, that it is necessary to accelerate the removal of the dichotomy between work and living spaces.

City space must become more integrated across various daily activities as one's home and neighbourhood become both one's workplace and abode, while workplaces must be capable for rapid reconfiguration to respond to changes in the business environment. It will require city planners to redesign and adapt to the priorities of community health and safety. Industrial spaces may need to incorporate more commercial or community content as businesses and communities become more intertwined.

Samer Halabi Executive Vice President KONE Asia-Pacific

The journey towards a smart urban future will be made possible by making huge digital strides. However, using digital solutions as an overlay to existing legacy infrastructure can only provide limited short- to medium-term benefits.

To future-proof against unpredictable shocks, infrastructure should be digital by design. By driving a deeper digital and physical integration, cities can become more connected, sustainable and resilient. We will increasingly see more multi-use buildings that are greener and have better utilisation rates and customisable people flow solutions.

Foo Fang Yong Chief Executive Officer Huawei International

As the foundation of the future smart city will be built on digital infrastructure, it must ensure that real-time functionality, scalability, and security are in place to elevate its resiliency. Connected devices such as sensors and wearables must act as sensory networks for the city, while networks of intelligent elements need a secure cloud-native backbone that adheres to local and global data regulations. A resilient digital infrastructure must enable the smooth flow of data between the sensory network and the telecoms nervous system, as well as the conversion of data into actionable insights through technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and big data analytics, for cities to be future-ready.

Abel Ariza President, Malaysia and Singapore Sodexo

Human, business and planetary health are intricately interlinked, and recognising this is a crucial first step. It is imperative that urban planners, institutions and businesses incorporate sustainability into everyday practice and invest in green innovations. This will not only improve quality of life and the environment, but also reduce costs in the long term as we collectively reap the benefits of these investments. From building energy efficient workspaces to managing food waste and incorporating more sustainable practices in the way we eat, smart technologies are central to our future prosperity and will be critical in building adaptable smart cities.

Callum Laing Chief Executive Officer MBH Corporation PLC

Cities are ecosystems and the best, most effective ecosystems are those that can adapt and respond to the needs of their constituents and more importantly, continue to attract new constituents. Flexibility and adaptability are more critical than ever given the speed of change. In the past, Singapore has done well to encourage businesses to set up shop here. Those businesses bring jobs, knowledge and resources, and in turn make it more attractive for other companies to set up here. However, the reverse is also very true. Any city that garners a reputation for being business-unfriendly will quickly get passed over for those that are more accommodating.

Charles Ferguson General Manager, Asia-Pacific Globalization Partners

Pandemic or not, business will go where the consumers are and hire the best talent available.

Since some of the top talent returned to their home country/city as a result of tightened employment policies, restructuring, or simply to be closer to loved ones during these uncertain times, Globalization Partners has observed opportunities emerging for traditionally second and third-tier cities. We have seen this trend in the US, the UK and here in Asia-Pacific, in countries like Australia, China and Indonesia where we now find a more equitable distribution of talent as well as commercial opportunities across the country.

Designing and building more resilient post-Covid cities necessitates narrowing the digital and infrastructural divides between the ''megacities'' and these ''secondary'' cities. Creating an attractive, robust and secure remote working framework with infrastructure must cater not only to local residents, but also the digital nomads and e-residents of today's highly globalised world.

Mark Billington Managing Director, International ICAEW

As the climate crisis continues to be a key global challenge, sustainability must remain a crucial consideration for future resilience. Governments need to ensure that green infrastructure is built into new developments and more importantly, is inclusive and accessible to all. This should start with a whole-of-nation approach, much like the Singapore Green Plan that looks at various aspects to urban planning such as biodiversity, renewable energy, and green transportation. The pandemic has brought about irreversible changes to the way we work, live and play, and the city of the future will need to adapt to these changes to create a greener and more livable city for generations to come.

Toby Koh Group MD Ademco Security Group

The most important change cities need is to manage their residents' mindset. In these uncertain times, everyone must expect disruption and keep a positive attitude towards change and adoption of new technology and models. The resilience of the people is vital and this starts with their adaptability quotient.

Liveability quotient must be a key goal for every city. It will be a fluid combination of design, technology, supply chain robustness, right down to factors that matter to the everyday person like convenience, things to do, excitement of the city and more. More than ever, with Singapore being a small island, the question is - we already have a great city to live in, but how do we continue to increase our liveability and happiness index?

Laletha Nithiyanandan Managing Director Behavioural Consulting Group

To thrive, cities need to take a systems approach to see how everything is connected, and stop addressing problems as separate issues, but instead take an inclusive approach and engage all stakeholders. Policymakers within cities need to harness the power of collective intelligence and distributed leadership in order for better solutions to emerge from the ground. They also need to find ways to reduce the poverty gap, because true progress only happens when all members of society are included to ensure that it becomes a better space to live, work and play for all who use that space. Inclusion is the answer to building resilience.

Ronnie Lee General Manager Lenovo Singapore

The ever-changing fluidity of the pandemic means that the evolution of the cities we live in will happen more often. As the past year has demonstrated, change is the only constant, and technology has enabled many to better manage this change through hybrid forms of working, learning and playing. While there might be others who were not able to ride these winds of change due to a myriad of socio-economic reasons, hindering their ability to respond to unexpected change, it is crystal clear that technology will continue to play a big part in a disrupted world. To be resilient, sustainable and livable in a post-pandemic world, cities must adopt a common global mindset and leverage on developments in new and smarter technology such as data and AI to boost infrastructure, investment and the use of cleaner energy resources. By ensuring that every business and every resident in every city has the capability and accessibility to harness technology, cities can be empowered to build up defences and be adaptable against future change.

Tony Frey VP and GM Informatica Asia-Pacific and Japan

It is noted in DPM Heng Swee Keat's speech that in order to be sustainable, liveable and resilient, cities need to look into creating innovative solutions, investing in digital infrastructure and digitalise their economy to enable them to thrive in urbanisation. As we see more prevalence of AI, Internet of Things (IoT), edge computing and 5G as technological resources to support the efforts, data is at the centre of the digital transformation. Data has been used in tackling the world's most complex challenges such as Covid vaccines and natural disasters. It is imperative that intelligent data continues to be leveraged for analytics and decision-making in order for a nation to scale and accelerate with innovations for a sustainable future.

Ronald Lee Managing Director, Asia KnowBe4 Singapore

Individuals and organisations alike have demonstrated tremendous levels of resiliency and innovativeness in tackling the sweeping changes in the way we live, learn, work and conduct business. As we build smart, resilient and sustainable post-pandemic cities, addressing security and privacy risks through design is going to be fundamental. As the past year has shown, cyber criminals are relentless in taking advantage of emerging business and lifestyle trends. As we continue to work, learn and conduct business from anywhere, investments in building physical, psychological and cyber resilience is essential. Anticipating future lockdown measures and potential confinement of citizens at homes, investing in building human resiliency and preventative measures such as new-school security awareness training is another practical approach to help mitigate future risks.

Mario Singh Chief Executive Officer Fullerton Markets

I believe that the greatest change that cities can make is to instil a culture of innovation among its citizens. The advantages of doing so are numerous. When we look back at how the world's gross domestic product has grown over the years, we will notice a marked uptick in the last 200 years. This started with the first industrial revolution which saw the advent of steam power and mechanised production. Today we are in the fourth industrial revolution which deals with digital and technological frontiers.

Besides the obvious economic prosperity that innovation brings, it is important to note the more subtle, but no less important, result - sociocultural change. People start to embrace opportunities, think outside the box and understand they can pivot and solve problems quickly. These are important outcomes to build resilience on both the individual and organisational levels.

Hitesh Prajapati Country Manager Vertiv Singapore

For Singapore to be truly adaptable and resilient to future shocks, it must invest in highly reliable and secure digital infrastructure that is accessible to everyone in the society, just like urban infrastructure systems and services. It is imperative that this digital infrastructure runs on highly efficient and sustainable architectures, increasingly shifting towards clean, renewable energy sources.

Vertiv recognises the vital role that data centres and communication networks play in ensuring the availability of critical digital applications and services at all times, especially during crisis. As industry experts in these domains, we collaborate with various stakeholders to envision and build future-ready, sustainable digital infrastructures for smart cities.

Anthony Couse Chief Executive Officer, APAC JLL

Making our cities' buildings greener and more sustainable will be key to ensuring resilience. In JLL's recent Asia-Pacific Sustainability Report, we found that the pandemic has acted as a catalyst for environmental and social responsibility across the region. Seven in 10 corporate tenants are willing to pay a rental premium to lease green buildings in the future.

However, the current supply of green buildings is insufficient to meet existing demand, and developers and landlords are having to play catch-up. To future-proof our cities, a partnership ecosystem that sees businesses, landlords, investors and government collaborating on common sustainability-focused ambitions is necessary to affect wide-scale change that will boost the resilience of our infrastructure.

Jess Ng Country Head, Singapore and Brunei Fortinet

Cities should invest in connected, secure and robust digital infrastructures to keep up to pace with the fast-changing environment and the evolving needs of their citizens. By investing in digital technologies, cities can fortify critical services such as hospitals and transportation, boost employment opportunities and improve the overall quality of life.

However, we need to keep in mind that the ''smarter'' a city is, the more vulnerable it is to attacks and security breaches. With increasing attacks on city infrastructures and cyberthreats becoming more sophisticated, a well-thought-out cybersecurity plan and protocols combined with an integrated security solution is vital in keeping cities safe and resilient.

Kelvin Lim Founder and Group MD Pacific Logistics Group

Creating more versatile and convertible-oriented spaces in land-scarce Singapore will better cushion it against future external shocks. As supply chains confront delays - be it port congestions, or a lack of shipping containers among other factors - versatile and convertible spaces will have intrinsic business value for cities.

In logistics, PLG's multi-level racks can shift and convert spaces quickly, tailored according to inventory sizes. Being able to switch quickly from high stock keeping unit (SKU) storage to high palletised inventory closes the gap between ''just-in-time'' and ''just-in-case'' measures.

This industry perspective is applicable to future urban infrastructure plans, where efficiency and flexibility must be thoughtfully factored in with space considerations.

Mitch Young VP and GM, Asia-Pacific and Japan ServiceNow

Investing in digital transformation provides cities excellent opportunities to become more robust in the face of unforeseen challenges, be it environmental, health, security or other shocks. Just as digital experiences and services are playing a vital part in our daily lives, cities have the opportunity to ramp up their digital offerings to better meet the changing needs and expectations of residents. This will give citizens greater options to interact with their city's services and features. For instance, in facilitating virtual tourism in times when travel is restricted, developing better contact tracing, supporting digital passports or integrating digital services seamlessly to better manage future surges in tourism traffic, both digitally and physically.

Helen Ng Chief Executive Officer Lock and Store

With work-from-home becoming the norm and more palatable for employers and employees alike, cities can well afford to convert more office space into mixed-use facilities. The use of modular furniture and fixtures should be encouraged, so as to allow for rapid space creation should there be an urgent need to transform an office space into a community care setting, for example. Urban planners should start designing for transient rather than permanent use.

Lim Soon Hock Managing Director PLAN-B ICAG

Cities should incorporate flexibility to be reconfigured with ease and in the shortest time possible, to support emergency needs arising from future shocks, such as a pandemic. Architectural designs and urban planning should incorporate this change to ensure that cities can fulfil this secondary purpose in times of crisis, such as war. For the latter, not only should more underground shelters be built, but basic amenities such as the availability of water and ventilation to sustain life, must be provided.

It will cost massive amounts of dollars to implement this vital change. Governments will have a major role to play not only in instituting this change, but also to contribute a lion's share of the investments to safeguard the well-being and protect the lives of citizens.

Perhaps in land-scarce Singapore, our long-term plan to build underground cities is the ideal solution.

David Leong Managing Director PeopleWorldwide Consulting Pte Ltd

Future shocks and external, unexpected events should be factored into urban and city planning for sustainable living spaces. Covid-induced challenges bring to light the vulnerability of close living spaces, from back when social distancing between people was never a real concern. Sudden surges in hospitalisation and quarantine spaces caused some alarm, and the government went into re-organisation mode to re-define spaces for such needs.

Singapore is a small country with limited land spaces, hence land maximisation and optimisation must be key to its planning. One way to build resilience is to create additional space underground by building subterranean living spaces that can be used in emergencies for quarantine or bomb sheltering. Subterranean spaces can be made livable with mixed-use developments.

Julian Quinn Senior Vice President, APJ Alteryx

In building better back, many national agendas to drive pervasive adoption of digital and smart technologies in all areas of city planning and decision-making have been pertinent globally. Beyond the technology push, data should no longer sit idly. A modern analytics tool has the capabilities to eliminate cumbersome data input by augmenting simple and repeatable workflows, allowing any individual, organisation and sector to draw data-driven insights with ease. By leveraging on advanced analytics as a strategic tool, governments are better positioned to drive evidence-based policymaking decisions to reimagine and construct resilient, smart and sustainable cities.

Annie Yap Founder and Chairman The AYP Group

First and foremost, resilient cities must not just promote sustainable development but also well-being and inclusive growth. It is pertinent for cities to work towards these factors. In order to ensure they are covered on all fronts, cities should focus on four pillars, namely, the economy, society, governance, and environment. Research has to be done to constantly find solutions to potential problems, and to ensure that the systems in place are robust and continuously updated. Strong disaster defences need to be mixed with strong social cohesion in order to ensure that cities are more resilient and will be able to bounce back faster from shocks, of any kind.

Sudhir Agarwal Chief Executive Officer Everise

As much as resilience is about strength, it's also about planning. Identifying what your strengths and weaknesses are within your own workforce, and then entrusting your soft spots to a party that is strong in that field helps entities to build resilience. We help our partners build that resilience when they entrust us with their customer support, but it's so much more than that. We are a partner to help businesses to digitally transform, to scale across borders, and to consistently deliver the brand promise.

Lee Siang Chief Executive Officer Dyslexia Association of Singapore (DAS)

Cities must ensure that education is not disrupted in all kinds of unforeseen circumstances as it is a driver of long-term success. A great city should also be inclusive and take care of the entire school-going population including those with special needs. Last year's pandemic brought to our attention that many low-income families lacked devices and online access to carry out home-based learning. The Dyslexia Association of Singapore (DAS) was able to overcome this challenge with the help of generous sponsors. Since then, the Singapore government has also introduced schemes to ensure all households have online access - this is an important step to strengthen our resilience in the area of education.

Henry Tan Group CEO Nexia TS Group

Telecommuting will become a norm that is irreversible. Some cities will be ideal for businesses to be based in, and some for staying as work-from-home grows. One can base their business in London but stay in, say, a Spanish countryside town. Cities must decide what they want to be; trying to be both will not work. It's ideal but unlikely to be sustainable - the reason being that the city for business will generally be high-cost, with real estate exceptionally costly. So, the key is to ensure good connectivity between businesses and resources. Cities that are good for living in will need to be full of greenery and untouched nature, and resist redevelopment. The more a city can maintain its original state, the more it becomes a sustainable place for living and staying. A sustainable eco model will be what these cities have to maintain.

This is Part 1 of the responses; Part 2 will be published on July 5.