Page 9 - Implementing ITU-T International Standards to Shape Smart Sustainable Cities: The Case of Singapore

Implementing ITU-T International Standards to Shape Smart Sustainable Cities –
The Case of Singapore

Executive Summary

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the United Nations specialized agency for
information and communication technologies (ICTs) and an international standards-developing
organization, has created a framework of key performance indicators (KPIs) to help cities become
smarter and more sustainable. The KPIs are categorized into various dimensions, including
information and communication technologies; environmental sustainability; productivity; equity and
social inclusion; quality of life; and physical infrastructure.
In 2015, Singapore initiated a partnership with ITU to implement the ITU KPIs on smart sustainable
cities and to refine these KPIs with the help of other United Nations agencies. These KPIs are
specifically designed to assess compliance with existing indicators used by other international cities,
as well as to facilitate the transition to smart cities and measure Singapore’s progress towards
becoming a “Smart Nation”.

This case study documents the key findings from the first year of collaboration between Singapore’s
Smart Nation initiative and ITU. It also highlights the activities carried out by different entities to
support Singapore’s Smart Nation initiative.

Section 1 of this case study delves into the history of the ITU smart city pilot project and the
importance of standardization in fostering smart city transitions. This section also highlights the
active role played by the United for Smart Sustainable Cities initiative (U4SSC) in driving smart city
transitions worldwide by facilitating knowledge sharing and preparing appropriate guidelines for
smart city transformations.
Section 2 provides a description of Singapore’s Smart Nation initiative and traces the journey of the
city-state since the adoption of its Smart Nation initiative in 2014. This section also presents the key
domains of Singapore’s smart city initiative, which include “Transport”, “Home and Environment”,
“Business Productivity”, “Health and Enabled Aging” and “Public Sector Services”. Following on from
the launch of the Smart Nation initiative, Section 2 also highlights the scope of the ITU KPI pilot
project in Singapore and underscores the three main phases of the process carried out to implement
the KPIs and assess Singapore’s journey towards becoming smart and sustainable.

Section 3 explores and links the various smart city activities adopted under the Smart Nation initiative,
with the KPI dimensions offering a deeper understanding of Singapore’s efforts in each of these
domains.

Based on the findings in Section 3, Section 4 highlights the best practices for aspiring smart cities,
based on Singapore’s experience in implementing the KPIs. One of the key findings of ITU’s pilot
project in Singapore (as described in Section 4) highlighted that the city-state needed to make greater
efforts in the “Environmental Sustainability” domain by launching more ICT-based applications to
stimulate public interest in this area. This domain may be boosted further in Singapore by creating
an innovative self-sustaining framework, which incorporates the evolution of an urban system that
is compatible with the available resources and promotes minimal environmental degradation.
Section 4 also offers suggestions for Singapore to strengthen its position as a growing smart city and
to improve the applicability of the KPIs to the country’s specific case. As one of the aims of this pilot
project was to improve the feasibility and applicability of the KPIs, Singapore provided input to the
existing KPI definitions along with practical solutions to improve the data collection process. The key
findings from this pilot project will contribute to the development of the world’s first “Global Smart
Sustainable Cities Index”, promoted by 16 United Nations agencies, programmes and secretariats
under the United for Smart Sustainable Cities (U4SSC) initiative.

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