Page 55 - U4SSC Compendium of survey results on integrated digital solutions for city platforms around the world

priorities. The reference framework of Montevideo Inteligente constitutes a milestone towards the
future development of a diverse, innovative, enterprising, enjoyable and liveable city.

Context

It is common to find in the best examples of smart cities around the world an internal and/or external
“trigger” to catalyse the formation of a powerful and successful smart cities department. In the
case of Montevideo, the external catalyst is the extent of digitalization in Uruguay – a process that
has accelerated over the last ten years. In fact, Uruguay is the leading country in Latin America in
digital government and is integrated with the D7, the most digitalized group of countries in the
world, which includes Canada, Estonia, Israel, New Zealand, Republic of Korea and the United
Kingdom. At the same time, another important catalyst has to do with the fact that Uruguay has
had a strong strategy over the last ten years to promote the innovative ecosystem, betting on
projects in which private companies, public institutions and academia participate jointly. Uruguay
has an ICT industry in the order of USD 1 billion, which is constantly expanding, with more than
700 technology companies exporting software to 52 different countries. Uruguay is also the main
software exporter per capita in South America and the third in the world. In this context, Montevideo
is part of this national process, betting on transversal management based on artificial intelligence
techniques and data science, in accordance with the strategies of the most advanced smart cities.

6.2 Governance and financing

At the beginning of the 2015–2020 government cycle, the municipality of Montevideo had
a technology division that was part of the urban planning department. However, the growing
availability of information made it imperative to prioritize technology as a tool to make better
decisions at the general level of the institution.

In this context, when the five-year budget was presented for approval in July 2016, the Department
of Sustainable and Intelligent Development was created. The department was born with the broad-
based objective of creating a smart city (based on the integration of new digital technologies) in
order to improve management processes. The improved quality of life of citizens with an inclusive
and sustainable approach was envisaged with a focus on the rights agenda, diversity as a slogan,
and care of the environment as a priority.

Among the instruments used, the Smart City Technology Management area was created to provide
the necessary technical support to the policy of Montevideo Inteligente, and the MVDLAB was
created as a laboratory of innovation and citizen participation.

To manage this process, the Advisory Council for Intelligent Cities was created, comprising of
representatives from AGESIC, the Agency for the Development of e-Government and Information
Society and Knowledge, and the ANII, the National Agency for Research and Innovation, and
universities. This Council has had wide participation in the validation of the strategy and
in the decision-making process to develop the organizational structure. The creation of an

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