Using ICT to enhance citizen livelihoods, attract investment and build sustainable urban environments

ICT infrastructure will reshape the urban environment to respond to 21st century challenges. Vibrant and creative cities drive economic, social and cultural development. Governments rightly focus on renovating existing cities and cultivating new ones to act as a catalyst to progress. This is now taking place on an unprecedented scale, with governments and developers launching projects that will change the urban landscape.

• Governments have an opportunity to ensure ICT infrastructure is integrated with the changing city. This will create a Smart City that enhances the lives of citizens, encourages business to invest, and create a sustainable urban environment. Thinking Smart now will ensure that a city retains its competitive edge.

• Citizens can benefit from enhancements to the services they use enabled by Smart infrastructure. Governments need to play a direct role in enabling the Smart City infrastructure and delivering Smart services. Enhancing communications between people and government will enhance the delivery of services creating a safe, friendly and efficient environment.

• A more attractive place to do business. Smart infrastructure also acts as a catalyst for economic development. The availability of high speed, low latency networks with excellent global connectivity enables business to benefit from services that exceed anything available elsewhere.

• Supporting and enabling a sustainable future. Increasingly, a key challenge for cities everywhere is ensuring sustainability, and driving towards the development of a low carbon economy. ICT infrastructure will support better use of resources and more efficient operation of the city.

• Smart City infrastructure can create significant economic benefits. There are strong incentives for implementing the Smart infrastructure beyond introducing innovative smart services. ICT investment boosts economic productivity, contributing between 0.3%-0.7% of GDP per capita growth in OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries between 1995 and 2005 (OECD Science Technology and Industry Scoreboard 2007).

• What constitutes a Smart City? The Smart City requires a ubiquitous ultra-high speed network infrastructure, fixed and wireless, that allows people, business and Government to connect with each other and the systems that manage the infrastructure and services of the city.

PA has the experience and tools to support Governments and municipalities with their Smart City ambitions.

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