Page 5 - Implementing ITU-T International Standards to Shape Smart Sustainable Cities: The Case of Singapore

Cities are home to over 50 per cent of the world’s
population and this figure is expected to rise to over
70 per cent by 2050. Cities are powerful hubs of
innovation responsible for the majority of global
economic output. They are also the world’s main
source of energy consumption and greenhouse gas
emissions. The need to transition to ‘Smart
Sustainable Cities’ has become a key policy point for
national and municipal administrations worldwide.
ITU is developing international standards for the
Internet of Things (IoT) and smart cities and exploring
new policy directions capable of stimulating the
transition to smart sustainable cities.
The ICT infrastructure of a smart city should ensure openness and interoperability, and this can
only be achieved with coordinated adherence to common standards. ITU standards support the
interconnection and interoperability of cities’ ICT systems, the mutually beneficial sharing and
use of smart city data, and the integrated management of smart cities’ cyber-physical systems.
This work is led by ITU’s standardization expert group for ‘IoT and smart cities and
communities’, ITU-T Study Group 20.

Policy debate is hosted by the “United for Smart Sustainable Cities (U4SSC) initiative”. Supported
by 16 United Nations agencies and programmes, this initiative advocates for public policies to
ensure that ICTs, and ICT standards in particular, play a definitive role in the transition to smart
sustainable cities.

Singapore was one of the world’s first cities to join the pilot project implementing and reporting
on the Key Performance Indicators for Smart Sustainable Cities developed by ITU and the United
Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), a project promoted by the U4SSC initiative.

ITU is pleased to support the aspirations of Singapore’s ‘Smart Nation’ vision, which aims to
enrich citizens’ lives by capitalizing on the potential of ICTs to improve environmental
sustainability, resilience, and equitable social and economic growth.
Singapore, one of the most connected cities in the world, champions the use of ICTs to improve
economic efficiency as well as the happiness and safety of its citizens. Singapore is an ideal
testbed for the ITU-UNECE Key Performance Indicators. The city state is an excellent ally to ITU
in raising awareness of the great potential of ICTs to improve quality of life in our cities.
This case study of Singapore’s Smart Nation strategy and associated experience with the
ITU-UNECE Key Performance Indicators provides a valuable reference point to other cities
pursuing smart city strategies. It also offers valuable guidance to ITU standards developers
responsible for the refinement of the Key Performance Indicators.

Dr Chaesub Lee
Director, ITU Telecommunication Standardization Bureau

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