Jan 29, 2019
A Smart City Innovation Tour In Asia: China, Singapore, Japan & South Korea
When it comes to the topic of “Smart City”, everyone mentions the Asian metropolises. But what is their status today?
by Fang Dong, Senior Community Manager, and Randall Wong, Marketing Intern, at MING Labs
When it comes to the topic of “Smart City”, everyone mentions the Asian metropolises. But what is their status today?
Do you sometimes reflect on how the technology your parents used in their days is vastly different from the type of technology you’re using today? Technology is ever-changing, and traditional companies are utilizing it in innovative ways to stay relevant and reinvent their current business models. The “smartness” of current technological advancements has given rise to a new field: Smart City. Claimed to have been introduced by IBM back in 2010, the concept of Smart City:
“…involves the use of technology and the Internet of Things to implement data-driven strategies” (Daxue Consulting, 2018).
With a burgeoning global population, Smart City solutions can make processes more efficient and help cities maximize their increasingly limited resources.
Where It All Began
EnBW, Germany’s third largest utility company, recently created a new department called “System-Critical Infrastructure” to explore and exploit new business models next to their traditional one. They are a trusted partner to cities and municipalities; EnBW has built nuclear plants and energy infrastructure all throughout Germany.
In the field of Smart City, EnBW has already established itself as one of the main drivers in Germany. However, they’re constantly pushing past the status quo and are exposing themselves to what others are doing in the field of Smart City solutions. Thus, they looked to countries that have done well in this field — and Asia was the place of focus.
Drawing on our network of entrepreneurs, corporate innovators and progressive government agencies, in 2018 we helped organize Smart City tours for the executives of EnBW in Singapore, Shanghai, Seoul and Tokyo, where we met over 60 people in the field.
MING’s Senior Community Manager, Fang Dong, together with the VP of Critical Infrastructure, Dr.Wolfgang Eckert, and two of his staff members spent a total of three days on each tour. The aim of the tours was to learn from current government and business leaders in the market, validate innovative Smart City ideas for Germany and to promote collaborations and partnerships with different stakeholders.
What we learned
With the completion of all four tours, we sat down to reflect on our learnings and insights from each country. In this first of a four-part series about the Smart City tour, we’ll discuss some of the highlights from our trip to Singapore. The focus is on the respective government’s involvement to drive Smart City, data access in each country and the level of collaboration within and from outside the country.
Singapore
“Therefore, our vision is for Singapore to be a Smart Nation — a nation where people live meaningful and fulfilled lives, enabled seamlessly by technology, offering exciting opportunities for all.” — Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, 2014
This sunny tropical island is more commonly known for its rapid development from slums to city in less than half a century. However, a recent direction the country has taken is in the area of Smart City solutions. Rolling out the Smart Nation project in 2013 was a deliberate and obvious move by the government to show its support for a sustainable future.
True to its reputation of rapid development, Singapore was ranked as the second smartest city in Asia, just behind Japan and one spot in front of Korea, according to the IESE Cities in Motion Index 2018. It’s against this backdrop that EnBW decided to make a trip to see how much the country has progressed in the years following the inauguration of the Smart Nation project.
Strong Government Push And Collaboration
It didn’t come as a surprise when we heard that the government is supporting the move to a smarter nation. What was more surprising was the extent the government took to support this move.
That’s why we went to the Economic Development Board (EDB) — a government body under the Ministry of Trade and Industry that plans and executes business strategies for the country. There, we were introduced to EDB’s Mobility department, Safety and Security Programme department, and the Ministry of Transport. They showed us the tremendous efforts put in by the government to encourage Smart City innovations. EDB’s efforts can be split into two: strategy and investments.
In terms of strategy, EDB has plans to develop the country’s roads into several layers to reduce traffic. The Head of Mobility shared with us that by doing so, it will free up land space for their citizens’ recreational use. Singapore being a small nation with limited land spaces left untouched, EDB plans to experiment with these strategies in little plots of test sites outside of the main business district to see its effectiveness.
The organization keeps Singapore aligned with the latest industry trends, and their Public Security department highlighted a growing demand in the APAC for solutions that keep a city safe. Hence, the department currently focuses on video surveillance and biometrics solutions.
On an investment level, EDB is offering data access to Singapore’s rich ecosystem to attract companies and foreign investment to set up research labs or innovation centers on the island. They believe that R&D, data access and having the right talents are key factors in creating smart security solutions powered by AI. The government also supports local startups by investing time, effort and money in building a robust ecosystem for startups to thrive. SG Innovate was set up by the government for that very reason and supported EnBW by arranging meetings with various Smart City-related startups such as Involt, RESync, TransferFi and MicroSec.
Aside from meeting the government body, EnBW also connected with private companies like Twilio, PTGEM, ConsenSys, Electrify.Asia and Found. These private corporations have been contributing to Singapore’s Smart Nation movement with relevant technological innovations, platforms and communities. The meetings with the various stakeholders saw a transparent sharing of information and details from both parties, which helped EnBW witness the collaboration between the government and private companies.
All in all, what we saw from Singapore was synergy — not just within the government but also between the government and private companies.
There was support from the top level down to the bottom level in Singapore’s drive for Smart City initiatives. Not only does the government talk the talk, they walk the talk as well. This was witnessed in our meeting with Singapore Power, where we saw how they digitalised their end-user communication platform, hence taking away the need for paper invoices.
What Germany Could Do
The drive for Smart City will be a long one, maybe an even longer one for EnBW and Germany. Germany, compared to Singapore, is a much bigger country with a relatively complicated legislation structure and data protection regulations. All of these factors are influencing the opportunities for Smart City innovations and the speed of their execution.
Singapore has proven that governments can share the driver’s seat with private companies in pursuit of Smart City solutions in the country.
Through investments, subsidies, proper infrastructure and strategies, the government has been able to take deliberate efforts in encouraging more Smart City-related innovations.
The Smart Nation movement showed the beauty of collaboration between different stakeholders. Although it started only in recent years, the nation has developed within a short amount of time to become one of Asia’s leading Smart Cities.
Embarking on a Smart City tour to Asia was definitely the right first step for EnBW. Their close partnership with the German government puts them in a favorable position to take the country one step closer to becoming a smarter city. By learning from other nations, they’ll be able to tap on the expertise and technologies these countries already possess. Even though there’s a long road ahead for EnBW, and Germany as a whole, the country has great potential and the resources to transform its cities with Smart City solutions.
Singapore’s approach came forward as more top-down from the government due to the maturity of the Smart City field in the nation. Moving further up north, China taught us a different approach adopted by the government in its pursuit of Smart City solutions. It’s one of collaboration with big corporations with specialized expertise and strong government support in the form of regulations and data access. Stay tuned for the second part of our Smart City tour series, where we’ll expound more on our learnings from China. Be sure not to miss it!
Fang Dong is Senior Community Manager and Randall Wong is Marketing Intern at MING Labs.
MING Labs is a leading digital business builder located in Berlin, Munich, New York City, Shanghai and Singapore. We guide clients in designing their businesses for the future, ensuring they are leaders in the field of innovation.
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