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Hong Kong should make the most of its smart-city expertise
Hong Kong's post-pandemic economic recovery will take time, so the government should be more proactive in exporting its expertise in smart cities, which will bring new and huge business opportunities to different sectors.
Singapore has demonstrated how to make good use of its experience to boost the economy. For example, the Singapore Land Authority, which facilitates the effective use of geospatial data in Singapore and was a co-creator of the impressive real-time, interactive 3D map Virtual Singapore, has gone one step further and created business potential by sharing this experience with other countries.
In April, it signed a memorandum of understanding with the Estonian Land Board to pave the way for "deeper knowledge sharing … in geodesy, precise positioning infrastructure, 3D mapping, remote sensing, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data interoperability".
In June, the Land Transport Authority signed another MOU with the Seoul metropolitan authorities. This covers a number of smart mobility initiatives, including efforts to encourage a pedestrian-centric and "car-lite" lifestyle to improve sustainability and liveability.
Singapore is actively seeking opportunities to share its smart city experience, not only with mainland China, other members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and neighbouring regions, but also with European cities. The key factor for Singapore's success is its holistic digital transformation, which drives the whole government to work towards the same goal. At the same time, as a small economy, it is able to transform into one of the world's best laboratories for digital solutions.
The Virtual Singapore project is one example. Another is self-driving taxis. Singapore launched a trial for the service as early as in 2016, and since then over 50 driverless vehicles including buses and road sweepers have been approved for trials on Singapore's roads. Taxi operator ComfortDelGro is now expected to pilot two electric self-driving cabs next year. Such valuable experimentation has made Singapore more convincing when sharing its experience abroad.
Transforming urban centres into smart and sustainable cities with advanced technologies has become a common objective for many cities globally. As Hong Kong is leading smart city development in Asia with a number of well-known achievements in education, transport, urban renewal and more, the government should take the lead in promoting these to the outside world. This will also create better development opportunities for Hong Kong talent.
Dr. Winnie Tang
Adjunct Professor, Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Engineering; Department of Geography, Faculty of Social Sciences; and Faculty of Architecture, The University of Hong Kong