Asian local governments unite behind smart city solutions amidst pandemic

“This pandemic not only showed a lot of problems we still face everywhere around the world especially with digital gaps, but we also realize how important environmental friendly ideas and innovation are,” said Vanessa Steinmetz, regional project coordinator of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation (FNF) for Freedom for Southeast and East Asia.

On 24 August 2021, the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats (CALD), in cooperation with the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), Nation Awakening Party (PKB) of Indonesia and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) of Taiwan, organized the CALD Smart City Meeting with Local Governments to share their current priorities, the issues confronting their local communities, as well as the significant gains they have achieved in implementing smart city solutions. This event, which is part of the CALD 2021 Smart City Project, is supported by FNF.

In his welcome message, Congressman Francis “Blue” Abaya, secretary general of CALD and Member of Parliament from the Liberal Party of the Philippines, shared that “Smart City solutions have been sorely needed to better organize our developing societies. Now with the pandemic still very much a part of our global existence, this need is felt even more acutely…advancing digitalization as an essential component of the Smart City project is becoming a key to an effective and lasting solution.”

Top city officials from Banyuwangi and Lumajang in Indonesia as well as Taoyuan in Taiwan, participated and shared their smart city tools and innovations that help deliver effective governance and public service amidst the pandemic.

Banyuwangi, a large port area in the eastern part of Java, Indonesia, currently experiences an increase in unemployment and poverty rate as well as in Covid-19 cases. To address these concerns, Ipuk Fiestiandani, Regent of Banyuwangi, presented Smart Kampung as an effort to increase village competitiveness and help its community. Focused on information technology-based public service, Smart Kampung provides efficiency in village budgeting, health care, economic empowerment, and access to information.

Another city in Indonesia, the Regency of Lumajang, represented by Thoriqul Haq, M.ML, presented its smart city model that includes six components focusing on smart people and living, environment, mobility, economy, and governance. Regent Haq also featured their intelligent command service center that serves as decision making support system for the region’s leader. It helps gather data, monitor community service and evaluate district government operations.

Also represented in the meeting is the 2019 Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) top awardee, Taoyuan City. It has the highest industrial density in Taiwan housing 11,000 factories and producing NT$3 trillion output value.

Evan Chang, senior executive officer of the Secretariat of Taoyuan City Government, presented the synergy of smart governance, smart living, and smart industries as Taoyuan’s strategy to address the needs of the citizens and to create a smart livable city.

Chang also presented the use of the Taoyuan Citizen Card, an all-in-one card used for social welfare and services, and a smart tech solution of body temperature reporting system using LINE, a social network application. He shared Taoyuan’s commitment in working with CALD and learning more smart city practices from the cities of Banyuwangi and Lumajang.

Lito Arlegue, executive director of CALD, shared excerpts of Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s inaugural speech, “Innovation should not just become knowledge, innovations should become culture.” Arlegue added that serving as former mayor of Surakarta and governor of Jakarta, President Jokowi understands the need for local governments to constantly innovate and delivery concrete results to the people. “We in CALD recognizes the importance of innovation and local governance in solving a myriad of social issues and problems,” Arlegue concluded.