Stakeholders commit to building digital cities

from MTHULISI SIBANDA in Johannesburg, South Africa
JOHANNESBURG, (CAJ News) – TECHNOLOGY executives, global municipal leaders and experts are exploring strategies towards building smart and digital cities.

They have met in Shenzhen, China for the 2019 International Smart City Forum with International Friendship Cities.

It ran under the theme, “Ushering in a Bright Future for Smart Cities.”

Guo Ping, Rotating Chairman of Huawei, said the company was dedicated to building a smart city digital foundation that enabled integrating, exploring, analyzing, and sharing data, by using ubiquitous connectivity, a digital platform, and pervasive intelligence.

“More importantly, we develop a digital brain for cities in hand with application partners, building a common ecosystem with mutual advantages,” he said in his presentation titled, “Building a Maslow Model for Smart Cities.”

“This brain will provide advanced ways to help cities make informed development decisions and will allow e-government, transportation, and policing domains to go digital. In doing so, we hope to build smart cities featuring smart administration, more benefits for residents, and prosperous industry development.”

In addition, Huawei has built 12 OpenLabs around the globe to conduct customer-oriented joint innovation with partners.

As a co-organizer, Huawei is a global leading Smart City and Safe City solution provider.

Huawei Smart City and Safe City solutions have served more than 700 cities in over 100 countries.

Yan Lida, President of Huawei Enterprise Business Group, said building a smart city was a long and constantly evolving process.

“Based on Huawei’s digital platform, cities will be like organic life. New applications will emerge and grow through iteration, and eventually achieve overall prosperity,” Lida continued.

Ugo Valenti, CEO of Smart City Expo World Congress, in his presentation titled, “A New World of Smart Cities”, said innovative technologies, including 5G, internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud, were disruptively renovating how cities are governed and managed.

“By nurturing Public-Private-People Partnerships, a co-creation model among government, corporations, and citizens, smart cities will facilitate a more open decision-making process, and bring a people-centric new world,” Valenti said.

The event coincided with the 70th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China, and 40 years since the establishment of Shenzhen city.

The forum also aligned with the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, which include sustainable cities and communities.

Atsushi Koresawa, Director for UN-Habitat Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, said international cooperation was significant.

“We see a very good platform here today for cities to share experience,” Koresawa said.

– CAJ News