Singapore’s Smart City Index Ensures Inclusion

The Singapore University of Technology and Design’s (SUTD) Lee Kuan Yew Center for Innovative Cities is partnering with the International Institute for Management Development (IMD), in Switzerland, to create a system of guidelines to be use as a benchmark to measure Singapore’s progress towards becoming a smart city. The ‘Smart Cities Index’ will also focus on ensuring inclusiveness.

The Lee Kuan Yew Center for Innovative Cities (LKYCIC) mission is to research critical issues of cities and urbanization, and to provide solutions through the following research areas: demographics, density, sustainability, resilience and risk, mobility and connectivity, and social capital. IMD focuses on training and developing general management and leadership skills. It prepares executives to lead their organizations into the digital era and to take advantage of digital opportunities and manage disruptive threats.

Chong Tow Chong, SUTD provost, said: “As smart cities will be the norm in the near future, this index will serve as an effective and well-recognized guide to help improve cities worldwide, through technology and design.”

IMD has created a ranking system in its World Competitive Yearbook measuring the abilities of economies in adopting digital technologies.

IMD president Jean-Francois Manzoni said: “The collaboration between IMD and SUTD holds the promise of a very exciting project. The Smart Cities Index that will be developed as a result should be the global benchmark in which cities, businesses, citizens and other parts of civil society can find a unique resource to identify best practices and to design and implement their own strategies for the world of tomorrow.”