Page 204 - Shaping smarter and more sustainable cities - Striving for sustainable development goals

decisions in the sectors that may generate more positive impacts and to find specific and adequate
solutions according to a cost‐benefit analysis.

Lastly, by creating knowledge exchange platforms, these organisations can drive collaboration
between stakeholders, and promote the replication of successful initiatives. An example of that is
the Smart Cities Stakeholders Platform created by the European Commission or the ITU’s Focus
35
Group on Smart Sustainable Cities.
4.8 Industry associations

This category includes some industry associations from the ICT and electrical sectors. Many of these
industry associations work to promote the deployment of SSC with the objective of extending this
new market.

A clear example of this is the Asociación Iberoamericana de Centros de Investigación y Empresas de
36
Telecomunicaciones (AHCIET) , the main organizer of the Ibero‐American Meeting of Digital Cities
(In Spanish, Encuentro Iberoamericano de Ciudades Digitales).
37
Another example is China's Strategic Alliance of Smart City Industrial Technology Innovation,
founded in 2012 under the guidance of the Ministry of Science of Technology (MOST). The alliance
is a non‐profit organization with 68 members from enterprises, government institutions and
academia. Through the study of common technologies of smart cities, the alliance aims to innovate
on the standardization and on dedicated technologies, in order to apply them in pilot smart cities
38
and projects. It is also very active in international collaboration on behalf of MOST.
Another example can be found with the GSM Association (GSMA), an international association of
mobile operators and related companies that has created the GSMA Smart Cities initiative focused
39
on accelerating the adoption of mobile based solutions and services.
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) also aims to assist municipalities in the
correct use of technology and to raise awareness of the benefits of its deployment to overcome the
challenges presented by urban population growth. Towards that aim, they have created the IEEE
Urbanization Challenge , an initiative that brings to selected cities assistance and advice from
40
experts, workshops, education resources (including support for Masters and PhD students), the
organization of an international conference on smart cities, and a knowledge repository. The
initiative selects a city per continent each year. The requisites includes the existence of an strategic
plan and availability of funding, willingness of the administration to share the experience during the
process, existence of a local section of IEEE and of a university interested in the field of smart cities.
The first city to be included to the program was Guadalajara (Mexico).

____________________

35 Smart Cities Stakeholders Platform ‐ EU http://eu‐smartcities.eu/
36 Asociación Iberoamericana de Centros de Investigación y Empresas de Telecomunicaciones (ACHIET)
http://ahciet.net/index.php/ahciet/quienes‐somos
37 Encuentro Iberoamericano de Ciudades Digitales http://www.ciudadesdigitales2013.com/
38 China Strategic Alliance of Smart City Industrial Technology Innovation. http://www.smartcityunion.cn/
39 GSMA Smart Cities initiative. http://www.gsma.com/connectedliving/smart‐cities/

40 IEEE Urbanization Challenge www.itu.int/en/ITU‐T/Workshops‐and‐Seminars/ssc‐la/201312/Documents/
S1P1_Victor_Rosillo.ppt

194 ITU‐T's Technical Reports And Specifications