Key success factors for smart cities

 

July 2018

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The Summit

The Smart Cities Global Technology & Investment Summit 2018, under the Patronage of His Excellency, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the President of the Algerian People’s Democratic Republic, was hosted by Smart City Algiers in June 2018. Riad Hartani, Strategic Technology Adviser for the Algiers Smart City project, spearheaded this initiative, with the support of TMT Finance, which provides exclusive intelligence and events on investment opportunities in telecom, media and technology.

The summit brought together 4,000 delegates. 150 international delegates took part in 70 keynotes and 40 panels over two days. A hackathon and a startup competition also took place at Algiers City tech hub and experimental lab.

This article presents the lessons learnt from the various conference streams.

 

Strategy

Defining the strategy of smart cities include the following:

  • Local socio-cultural-political context

  • Future ecosystem

  • Own vision and priorities

  • Top-down design and a few areas of focus

  • Stakeholder alignment

  • Quick wins

  • Incremental and modular development approach

 

Society and sustainability

Society

Smart Cities are lauded as an answer to rapid urbanization and environmental issues in emerging markets. They may well be if they address the basic needs of populations and are tailored to local socio-economics, rather than focused on technology. Success also depends on infrastructure development, social and digital inclusion, women's empowerment, and education for all. Rural areas should not be overlooked.

The folowing principles should be adopted:

  • Equality and Inclusiveness

  • Participation

  • Accountability

  • Compassion

Sustainability

The holistic and sustainable approach should cover:

  • Most crucial issues: water, food, air, energy

  • Sustainable built environment

  • Smart urban energy

  • Emission-free mobility

  • Resource wise citizens

  • Circular economy

  • Resilient and permanent changes

 

Investment

Challenges

Investment challenges include:

  • Insufficient public funding

  • Numerous areas covered by smart cities: infrastructure, technology, and social

  • Currency and maturity issues

Solutions

It is crucial to shift from…

  • Government and international subsidies to private funding

  • Research to commercial funding

  • ‘Living lab’ to genuine smart city

  • Traditional infrastructure finance to new models

In addition to Public Private Partnerships (PPPs), financial innovation could include:

  • Crowdfunding

  • Smart Bonds

  • Carbon Offset

  • Tax Increment Financing

  • Energy Saving Performance Contracts

Finally, tax incentives can also be offered.

 

Governance

Challenges

Governance-related challenges include:

  • Unfavourable procurement rules

  • Investor expectations not aligned with people’s needs

  • Various business ‘languages’

  • Silos

  • Service provider lock-in

Solutions

The above challenges can be overcome with:

  • Leadership

  • Stakeholder engagement and citizen focus

  • Bringing together tech providers, state and local authorities, and investors

  • Transparency and collaboration

  • Project coordination

  • Urban planning capabilities

  • Legal and regulatory framework adjustments

  • Outcome-based procurement

  • Risk/reward balance

  • Results-oriented business cases

  • Benefits realization over time

  • Data governance model

 

Digital Infrastructure

Challenges

Global challenges include:

  • Interoperability issues

  • Privacy and cybersecurity risks

  • Lack of common 5G and IoT standards

  • Cascading technology trap

Issues specific to Africa derive from:

  • Limited broadband

  • High power consumption and costs

  • Poor internet quality and nearly no cashless payment

  • Lack of data centres

  • Unfavourable ICT market structure

Solutions

Smart city projects should:

  • Learn lessons from other cities

  • Link technology with business drivers

  • Employ CSO and CTO/CIO

  • Safeguard privacy and cybersecurity

  • Upgrade physical and digital infrastructure

  • Leverage information and latest technologies

  • Integrate technologies (platform)

  • Ensure the longevity of new smart city systems

  • Recruit, train and share high-end talent

  • Develop enticing policies and regulations

The way to solve the cascading technology trap is to

  • Involve leading internet and cloud players

  • Make progressive smart city decisions

  • Build a consortium

  • Involve startups

 
Smart city sectors and applications

Smart city sectors and applications

 

technologies and applications

Technologies

Leapfrogging technologies should be deployed, for instance

  • IoT

  • AI, Data Science, Cloud

  • Fintech, Blockchain

Sectors and Applications

The table above presents examples of applications in crucial sectors such as mobility, health and utilities.

Benefits

These technologies and applications can lead to the following benefits:

  • Increase GDP

  • Reduce unemployment

  • Improve quality of life

  • Improve health

  • Protect environment

  • Reduce traffic jams

  • Reduce crime

 

Talent, Startups and Innovation Systems

Talent

Smart city projects in Africa should rely on:

  • General and digital education

  • Youth

  • Women education and entrepreneurship

  • Diaspora

Startups and Innovation Systems

Smart city projects shold also lean on:

  • Strong and open ecosystem

  • Enticing policies and regulations

  • Incubators

  • Tech hubs

  • VC funds

  • Collaboration with telecommunications companies, tech players, and VC firms

  • Linking startups to demand side, creating path to customers and customers’ revenue

  • Quality of life

 
Cross-sectorEt PicDigital Revolution