Asia Pacific is home to most of the world’s largest and fastest-growing urban areas, and smart city technology is becoming a crucial element of their future development. Nations throughout the region are sponsoring enormous new urban areas to house growing populations and creating policies that encourage smart city technology to guide their development. Working with an evolving mix of international and regional smart city technology firms, Asia Pacific governments are piloting a variety of technologies to solve urban problems, reduce urban energy and resource use, and prepare for future growth. Leading cities and providers are taking the initial steps in integrating networks of intelligent technologies to create true smart cities.
City leaders all over the world have embraced the smart city concept with enthusiasm. They are heralding innovative projects and laying out a vision for how cities can use technology to meet sustainability goals, boost local economies, and improve services. This commitment to changing how cities operate is driving the continued interest in smart cities. Moreover, the smart city concept is evolving as more cities set out their own agenda and a growing range of suppliers deliver solutions to meet their emerging needs.
Smart city technologies are being developed to address a range of issues, including energy management, water management, urban mobility, street lighting, and public safety, for example. These innovations are underpinned by general developments in areas such as wireless communications, sensor networks, data analytics, and cloud computing. The smart city concept is also driving new integrated approaches to city operations.
As the technology continues to advance and mature, Asia Pacific cities in both developed and developing markets are looking to a variety of non-traditional methods to solve the key problem of financing IT and infrastructure improvements. At the same time, the group of solutions providers is growing and diversifying as Chinese and Indian firms adopt smart city strategies and expand out of their home markets, joining Japanese, South Korean, and international technology firms already active across the region. Navigant Research forecasts that annual smart city technology investment in Asia Pacific will almost quadruple by 2023, reaching $11.3 billion.
For entrepreneurs and city dwellers alike, smart cities run on smart technologies is the future.