Taiwanese and Indonesian Cities Leap into a Smarter Future

“Government is best when it’s closest to the people…being with people immerses one with the real and pressing problems on the ground. One gets a sense, firsthand, of what’s relevant and important,” said Lito Arlegue, CALD Executive Director, during the CALD Smart City Webinar held virtually last 27 January via Zoom.

This is the very reason why local governments, being closest to the people, can be “hubs of innovation” and push for fast, effective and sustainable solutions,” Arlegue added.

With the theme “Towards Reimagining Smart City Plans and Strengthening Partnerships,” the webinar convened local government leaders, city government officials, CALD members and partners as well as students to present the project output of Banyuwangi and Lumajang, Indonesia and Taoyuan, Taiwan.

The event also aimed to share their smart city plans as the world continues to face the challenge of reimagining cities in the aftermath of the pandemic – when the need to be resilient, efficient and responsive becomes pertinent to achieve better quality living.

Taoyuan, Taiwan

Karen Yu, Director-General of the Information Technology Department of Taoyuan City Government, shared the city’s vision on inclusiveness, diversity and sustainability. Taoyuan as a hybrid city welcomes a diverse workforce and community. They offer Taiwan citizen card to residents, workers, business owners, and this allows users access to facilities and public services (transportation, shops, personal identification), and serves as an electronic payment card for everyday use.

Taoyuan’s goal is to increase accessibility and replicability to further strengthen growth and development together with the international community. CALD worked together with Taoyuan to present a video featuring their smart city plans.

Lumajang, Indonesia

Progressive policies can produce results and empower communities despite the distance. This is how Regent Thoriqul Haq addresses the issues of safety, traffic jam, education, health, infrastructure, environment management, disaster, and poverty in Lumajang.

Poverty, one of the priority issues, can be addressed by improving the quality of education and health, increasing investment, and reducing the unemployment rate.

In cooperation with CALD, Lumajang worked on the Manpower Management Information System to help the regency build a database of job seekers, employers, businesses, and geographical locations; improve labor distribution supervision; expand access to information; and aid officials in crafting appropriate policies based on data gathered.

In this manner, the public can access information on jobs and training while the local government increase opportunities and the protection of workers and its citizens.

Banyuwangi, Indonesia

Providing direct solutions to the concerns of villagers is indeed crucial and the Banyuwangi Regency was able to address more than 5,000 problems on MSMEs, education, licensing, infrastructure, health, among others, according to Budi Santoso, head of the Communications, Informatics, and Encryption Department of Banyuwangi Regency.

Through its Smart Kampung program, technology addresses the issues of distance and time of public service delivery from the center of government to all villages. “The distance from the farthest village to Banyuwangi city is about 200 km, which is a travel time of approximately 3 hours,” Santoso noted.

CALD worked on a video with Banyuwangi to continue to promote Smart Kampung to all villages and encourage the people to utilize and maximize its potential.

The CALD Smart City Project, with the support of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation  (FNF) for Freedom, was carried out in cooperation with three CALD member-parties, namely: the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) of Taiwan, Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP), and Nation Awakening Party of Indonesia (PKB).

“CALD, as a regional alliance of free and democratic parties in Asia, has always been committed to providing members and partners with a development platform for smart and sustainable urban dialogue and cooperation”, said Peifen Hsieh, spokesperson of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) of Taiwan.

She added that the International Department of the DPP remains committed to promoting more smart city development cooperation among local governments under CALD member-parties, in line with CALD’s goal of building inclusive, empowering and technology-oriented cities of the future.