Page 261 - Are You Future Ready?

Chapter Four - Right People

Creatvitiy + tech for unfulfilled needs

We are facing lots of pressing issues, such as an ageing
'tsunami', global warming and income inequality. As I have
always said, the smart city is not about doing innovation
for innovation’s sake, technology is only an enabler. What

we need to do is to identify the key issues in the city
that must be improved. Creative solutions and advanced
technology may be needed to facilitate the process. We
need our people to attend to unfulfilled needs. That is the

reason why I feel encouraged when I have recently seen 259
lots of local initiatives.

Eaxmple #1: Grassroots women to
increase income

A social worker lines up women from the grassroots with
commercial restaurants so that the housewives can utilise
the equipment of the restaurants, during non-business

hours, to produce food to earn a living. At the same time,
the restaurants can also increase their revenue. I like the
idea of making use of idle resources to address the needs
of our society.