[TECH] i-CiTY Summit 2017: Setting the Blueprint of an Intelligent City

Here’s the thing, having fast (or free) wifi does not make a Smart City.

Rather, having the right infrastructure in place to provide fast internet is just one of the component of building a Intelligent City.

A Smart or Intelligent city is an urban development vision that tries to  integrate multiple information and communication technology (ICT) and Internet of things (IoT) solutions in a secure fashion to manage a city’s government and departments such as local information systems, schools, libraries, transportation systems, hospitals, power plants, water supply networks, waste management, law enforcement, and other community services.

The goal of building a smart city is to improve quality of life by using urban informatics and technology to improve the efficiency of services and meet residents’ needs.

A Smart City allows officials to interact directly with the community and the city infrastructure and to monitor what is happening in the city, how the city is evolving, and how to enable a better quality of life.

In a move hopefully kickstarts positive change in local governance, The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) and the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) recently hosted the first i-CiTY (intelligent city) Summit in the Philippines gathering industry leaders from the government and private institutions to promote the importance of technology for a safer and better connected Philippines.

Partnering with the two agencies is Huawei, one of the leaders in building infrastructure for smart cities

“We believe the time is right for the Philippines to embark on this digital journey to transform the way we live, work and play in a safe and healthy environment. This will enable the citizens’ to be content in this new sustainable society,” says Jacky Gao, Huawei Philippines CEO. “In establishing i-CiTY ecosystem, we are committed to this country by sharing global successful use cases, project experiences through partnership with government, academia and business operators,” he added.

The i-CiTY

A safer and Better Connected Philippines hopes for more inter-agency c

ollaborations, readily accessible information, faster response rate, and consequently, an increased digital economy, better employment opportunities, improved living conditions and a more globally competitive Philippines.

The i-CiTY brings together four key elements of a city’s infrastructure and the services which it offers Digital City Management, Digital Public Services, Digital Industry, and Safe City.

These four key elements are underpinned by Cloud infrastructure, communication networks and sensors which are the eyes and ears of an i-CiTY.

The highlights of the summit’s opening day include talks and panel discussions on global trends, public safety, e-government, and presentation of the i-CiTY financial and operational models. Knowledge sharing on the safe city implementation of Bonifacio Global City, Philippines and Bandung, Indonesia, among others were also part of the event. The key output of the summit was the official launch of Philippines’ Safe City White Paper—a commitment by the government and its partners from the public and private sectors to push for a safer and better connected country.

Second day of the summit focused on the presentations of the DICT in connection to the National Broadband Plan and explained how technological innovations can help improve transportation system and public services to drive direct investments.

The Constituents

DICT and DILG forged partnerships with Huawei Technologies Phils. Inc., SAP, Hexagon, IHS, Pacific Disaster Center, PWC, Indonesia FTTH Association, Roland Berger, Malaysia Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) and Delaware Consulting. Both local and international key industry leaders share their best practices, opportunities, challenges, and how information and communications technology (ICT) can be maximized.

The Construction

The Philippines is set to go through a digital transformation. Key change drivers will be the provision of faster and more stable internet connection for uninterrupted communication, cloud architecture that has the ability to support new products, processes, applications, and services anytime and anywhere, and facilities for behaviour analysis such as real-time surveillance and pre-event warning, among others.

To know more about this project, please visit https://www.facebook.com/iCiTYSUMMIT/