These were just some of the ideas
floating around and the
government's Infocomm
Development Authority (iDT) has
started picking up other straws in
further building the Smart City
vision for Singapore. They are
currently collecting data and
exploring ways that could help the
country achieve its goals.
Singapore is highly capable of
reaching its dream. According to
iDT, as of 2014, 88% of all
households in Singapore has
access to the Internet and 79% of
their 5.5 million population are
Internet-users. These are crucial
requirements as smart cities will
be reliant on the IoT. In this case,
almost all of Singapore is
connected.
Singapore is future-ready
Just this year, an additional boost came from
tech giant Dell, when it named Singapore as the
third most “future-ready city” out of the 50 cities
named based on the Futures Ready Economies
Model. The top two spots went to San Jose and
San Francisco, California (which are obviously
hotbeds of technology). The first 10 countries
that made it to the list are:
1
San Jose
6
Boston
2
San Francisco
7
Austin
3
Singapore
8
Raleigh
4
London
9
Stockholm
5
Washington, DC
10
Sydney
Singapore was the only Asian country to make it to the Top 10 with Korea's capital Seoul-Incheon ranked at
number 12.
Aside from that, Singapore has also earned the recognition of the International Data Corporation (IDC) in 2015
when it won four out of 14 categories in the Most Outstanding Smart City Initiatives. These were:
Transportation: Intelligent Transport Systems Initiative
Education: Future Schools@Singapore
Smart Water: Smart Water Sensors for Water Management
Land Use and Environmental Management:
National Environmental Agency Smart Mapping for Dengue Prevention and Control
Smart cities for other ASEAN nations
On top of all the accolades, Singapore remains to be one of the few ASEAN countries actively pursuing projects
towards smart city development. Malaysia and Thailand have started some initiatives as well but other nations
seem to be lagging behind. This comes at a time when Internet connectivity still remains shoddy and unreliable in
some parts of Southeast Asia.
Nonetheless, with the Lion City/State taking the lead, Balakrishnan's vision might just come true. Taking the
digital Silk Road to Southeast Asia could be the country's biggest contribution yet to all ASEAN member nations.
30 Asean Life APR 2016
Photo by jonathna hilton via www.freeimages.com