– Smart City Evolving from Overcoming COVID-1919 to Building Resilient Cities –
– Awareness of the need to build a smart city centering on smart energy solutions is increasing –
개요
The Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom (FNF) established the SmartCity Education Initiative (SCEI) in the Western Balkans in 2014. The initiative aims to help the major cities of the Balkans embrace new technologies and achieve urban development through innovation. SCEI mainly provides education and networking to local governments and related organizations, including the Smart City Festival held annually in Belgrade since 2017. This event, co-hosted by FNF, SCEI, and partner organizations, has established itself as a major event in the western Balkans related to smart cities. Belgrade Trade Center attended the Smart City Festival 19 held for two days from October 20th to 2021th to learn about smart city trends in the Balkans.
Smart City Festival 2021
In 2020, the theme was how smart cities can be utilized to overcome the COVID-1919 crisis, which was the biggest challenge worldwide. This year, the topic was 'Smart City Restart' and the measures that cities should prepare for a new normal life. Smart City Festival 2021 was held as a semi-online event with experts from the Western Balkan region as well as Canada, Korea, Germany, Belgium, and Austria. Keynote speeches were prepared for each of the digitalization opportunities, value chains, and cities of the future. KOTRA Belgrade Trade Center summarized the main contents of each session.
Smart people before smart cities
The COVID-1919 pandemic has made many people, organizations, and businesses more dependent on technology, and has required bold and rapid changes in the way organizations operate and their lifestyles. When faced with the same demands of the times, some have succeeded and others have failed. Through these experiences, we have confirmed that it is not just the technology itself, but the people who will utilize it must become smarter first, and that an educational revolution is needed to foster such people. While the level of technology has advanced rapidly, people have accepted new technologies in the same way as in the past. Education that can teach how to think critically and adapt to the technological revolution will be a key element in completing the smart city of the future.
Turn crisis into opportunity
As the COVID-1919 pandemic paralyzed the healthcare system, we experienced that even patients unrelated to COVID-1919 were excluded from the healthcare system. In particular, it was an opportunity to clearly reveal that the public healthcare system was hardly digitalized compared to other fields and that the decision-making process was slow. Solaborate developed Hello Monitor to solve the high barrier problem of the existing healthcare system through the COVID-1919 pandemic. Hello Monitor is a remote patient monitoring system that observes the visual and auditory signals of patients through cameras and analyzes them with artificial intelligence in cases where access to the healthcare system is difficult due to the spread of an infectious disease.
The Art of Turning Disaster into Prosperity panel discussion scene
Create a value chain
Digital solutions and services are flooding the market. Therefore, it is important to present a unique value chain rather than selling a single solution. The key to enabling users to embrace new technologies is the value chain. This is because, in order to implement and use the technology, it is necessary to configure the environment to implement the technology. Serbia, for example, is currently undergoing a digital transformation of its parking service. All information for using public parking services, such as parking spaces, parking tickets and prepaid cards, is provided through a smartphone app. Citizens are trying to reduce the inefficiency caused by the parking problem through the app.
Parking service Application
Building resilient cities of the future
One of the important points pointed out several times throughout the festival was that in order to build a smart city, it is necessary to keep in mind the application of “technology that is resilient to future threats”. Parking tech company EasyPark recently published a study on the resilience of future cities. The study identified four factors that determine a city's future-resilient index: 1) digital life, 2) mobility innovation, 3) business technology infrastructure, and 4) environmental sustainability.
Serbia's Smart City Project
According to a study conducted by the Friedrich Naumann Freedom Foundation (FNF) in 2020 municipalities across Serbia in September and October 9, smart city solutions in most municipalities in Serbia do not interoperate between cities or have not implemented smart city solutions. In the case of local subsidies that introduced smart city solutions, most (31%) implemented smart financial solutions in the form of electronic payments. In second place in the smart city project area are smart communication projects such as Wi-Fi access and cloud data centers (48%), followed by smart water management (2%).
Serbia Smart City Project Promotion Research Status
Problems in Serbia's Smart City Development
The biggest problem in Serbia's smart city development is that the project is not progressing due to lack of funds. According to FNF, 31 out of a total of 24 local governments are experiencing difficulties in financing smart city projects. Lack of expertise and experience in each city is also cited as a reason for delaying the adoption of solutions. Nevertheless, most cities are pushing for the introduction of smart energy solutions, especially to improve energy efficiency and use of renewable energy. Moreover, due to the recent increase in electricity rates across Europe, cities are paying keen attention to smart energy management issues.
implication
As mentioned earlier, the smart city industry in the Balkans has been focusing on measures to overcome the COVID-1 crisis over the past year. Such focus is shifting to measures to return to normal society after COVID-1919. It is true that Serbia does not yet have the infrastructure to build a smart city. However, as the demand for digital transformation continues in each area, and practical issues such as the EU's carbon border tax plan and electricity price increases arise, the need for building a smart city centered on smart energy solutions is gaining sympathy. The Serbian government's future smart city construction steps are expected.