Page 29 - Enhancing innovation and participation in smart sustainable cities

United for Smart Sustainable Cities
Enhancing Innovation and Participation

2 Smart city related activities in Singapore

2.1 Vision

“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. We should see it in our daily living
where networks of sensors and smart devices enable us to live sustainably and comfortably. We should see it in
our communities where technology will enable more people to connect to one another more easily and intensely.
We should see it in our future where we can create possibilities for ourselves beyond what we imagined possible.”
-Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong 24 Nov 2014
In order to achieve the vision of a smart city, in addition to mitigating and adapting to climate change impacts, it
is necessary that government and the private sector in Singapore work together to enable and facilitate this
transition. Singapore has aimed to achieve this by integrating the aspect of ‘smartness’ into its city planning and
incorporating ICTs into economic and domestic sectors, to improve energy efficiency at the household and
business level and to promote intelligent sustainable buildings, efficient water management, better education and
awareness related to smart initiatives. The Smart Nation vision in Singapore also aims to provide healthcare for
an ageing population, implement transport solutions and improve overall logistics (especially for the maritime
industry).

The main overarching initiatives within the Smart Nation Singapore vision include:
(i) Health: health hub portal, tele-health, assistive technology and robotics for ageing and healthcare;
(ii) Living: smart homes, apps for reporting environmental issues;
(iii) Services: smart cashless society, digital government, regulatory sandbox for innovative fintech
experimentation;
(iv) Mobility: self-driving vehicles, mobility on demand and a contactless, account-based fare payment
system.

2.2 Implementation
Singapore’s notion of a Smart Nation is based on its ability to gather data, interpret it, glean insights and then
translate those insights into meaningful action. The following are some important areas that Singapore focuses
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on, in keeping with their smart-city aspirations :
ƒ Smart-city planning: This is one of the key features for establishing a smart sustainable city. The Urban
Redevelopment Authority (URA) develops the master and concept plans for land use, and this will guide
development for the next 10 to 15 years. In 2008, an Inter-Ministerial Committee on Sustainable
Development helped build a “Sustainable Development Blueprint”, outlining that Singapore should be
efficient, clean and green in its development. In September 2014, Singapore’s Housing and Development
Board (HDB) announced its Smart HDB Town Framework, which guides the introduction of smart
initiatives into HDB towns under four dimensions: Smart Planning, Smart Environment, Smart Estate and
Smart Living. Under Smart Planning, HDB aims to use computer simulations and data analytics to
augment current planning efforts, in order to provide residents with well-designed homes in green and
sustainable towns. An example is the Complex Systems Modelling tool, a decision-making tool that allows
planners to choose the most effective and viable combinations of solutions to achieve their desired
sustainability target.
ƒ ICTs in economic sectors: This sector plays a major role in the transformation of Singapore into a smart
city. The "Infocomm Media 2025 (ICM2025) plan is a 10-year master plan which sets out to create a
globally competitive and infocomm media ecosystem that:
(a) enables and complements Singapore’s Smart Nation vision;

5 These areas do not represent the scope or fields of the Smart Nation vision. These key areas have been explored with the
intention of highlighting key strategies adopted by Singapore which will support the country’s transition to a smart
sustainable city. For detailed analysis of the Smart Nation vision and related activities, please refer to the report on the ITU
pilot project in Singapore.

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