No less than 193,000 people attended virtually the first edition of Smart Cities Moscow, an international online forum which took place earlier this week in Moscow. Eighty-six speakers from Russia, China, Switzerland, Canada, Spain, the United States, Sweden and other countries shared their views, offering fascinating insights about smart city developments across the world.
“A modern approach to digitalization is unthinkable without exchange of experience and conversation between cities,” said Eduard Lysenko, Minister of the Moscow Government, Head of the Department of Information Technologies of Moscow, during the event.
“Moscow city, being one of the world leaders of digital transformation, acted as a platform for such a conversation, and it is important for us that the international community responded with interest to this initiative. Recent years have especially shown how important it is to develop the IT infrastructure of cities and create online services focused on the daily needs of city dwellers. Synchronization and joint efforts will make megacities even more sustainable, smart and comfortable for living,” Lysenko added.
The need for global communities to cooperate in creating and developing smart cities was also stressed by Juwang Zhu, director of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs’ Division of Public Institutions and Digital Government:
“We at the UN support universal interaction in terms of the implementation of new technologies. I am glad that the Smart Cities Moscow forum will now be an annual event. This is very important: to encourage cities to exchange practices, to develop digitalization with the whole world, so that there would be more and more smart cities,” Zhu said.
The greatest benefit of using new technologies was seen by countries during the fight against the pandemic, Zhu noted.
The business program of the forum consisted of 15 sessions divided into three main directions: Smart City Infrastructure and Technologies, Smart City for Life, and Sustainable Development of Smart City. The experts shared their experiences of using digital solutions in transport, urban planning, tourism, ecology, energy and other sectors important for the cities. Separate sessions were devoted to piloting 5G networks, application of artificial intelligence in urban processes and big data analysis for urban development planning.
Best practices and ecosystem approaches to urban digitalization were discussed during the plenary session of the forum. Moscow mayor Sergey Sobyanin spoke about the experience of introducing technologies in the capital and creating digital platforms for residents. He said that Moscow digital projects cover “absolutely all spheres of life, focusing primarily on human needs.”
Beijing mayor Chen Jining, Almaty mayor Bakytzhan Sagintayev and Fort Lauderdale mayor Dean Trantalis also shared their experience, along with Saeed Belhoul, Director of Electronic Government Operations of Dubai Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, and Mohamed Salah Eldin, Project Manager for the smart city construction and formation of Nour, the new administrative capital of Egypt.
Two certificates of compliance with international ISO standards for sustainable and smart cities were awarded to Moscow. “There is no precedent of these two certificates being awarded simultaneously,” said Patricia McCarney, president of the International City Data Council (WCCD).
