The Annual IMD-SUTD Smart City Index (SCI), a survey published by Swiss business school Institute of Management Development (IMD) and the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), which ranks 118 cities by how “smart” they are, has named Singapore as the smartest city in the world for the third year running. Zurich and Oslo took second and third position in the Smart City Index.
The Smart City Index takes into account input from the cities’ residents of how technology had improved their lives. Some 15,000 city residents were surveyed globally in July 2021 across 118 cities. They were asked how their respective cities were doing regarding health and safety; mobility; activities; work and school; and governance. They were also asked to select five priority areas for their city from a list of 15.
According to IMD’s Smart City Observatory, Singapore’s achievement is largely due to the policies it pursued at both the city and national level – particularly in e-government services, education and human-centric urban strategies. Additionally, having gone through the Sars crisis, Singapore was better prepared to face the current Covid-19 pandemic as compared to other cities around the world. Its higher degree of social cohesion was also a factor, as well as the availability of digital facilities (typically apps) that allowed the close monitoring of how the virus was circulating.
(Sources: Institute of Management Development; The Straits Times)
