Singapore has been named the fifth smartest city in the world.
Source: Unsplash, for illustration purposes only
This makes it the top Asian country on the list, eight spots ahead of Beijing and 12 spots ahead of Seoul.
The rankings take into account various economic, technological, and humane factors that contribute to the quality of life for citizens in 142 cities.
The Smart City Index 2024 was published by the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) on Tuesday (9 April).
It assessed residents’ perceptions of issues related to infrastructure and technology in their city.
These perceptions were solicited for two pillars:
Each pillar was then evaluated in five key areas:
Besides survey responses, hard data was also accounted for in the index’s methodology.
The cities that climbed to the Top 5 in the rankings are:
Singapore, which moved up two spots from last year’s ranking, attained an ‘A’ grade for both the Structures and Technology pillars.
It emerged as the best-performing Asian country, outranking other nations in the region like Beijing (#13), Taipei (#16), and Seoul (#17).
Source: Stéphan Valentin on Unsplash
The Lion City was also named one of the consistently high-performing cities in the Top 20 since 2019.
When it came to perceptions towards areas that should be prioritised, respondents chose affordable housing as the highest indicator.
On the other hand, corruption and transparency were the least pressing concerns.
Interestingly, there were no North American cities that made the Top 20.
The President of the Smart City Observatory, Bruno Lanvin, stressed that cities should implement strategies that can stand the test of time.
Bringing up the relevance of artificial intelligence (AI), he added that:
Trust and good governance are growing in importance, and the significance of AI in city design and management is set to increase. Counterintuitive as it may sound, AI can help cities to become more human-centric.
The index was born from a partnership with the Seoul-based World Smart Sustainable Cities Organisation (WeGO).
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Featured image adapted from Swapnil Bapat on Unsplash.
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