Letters | Singapore is making the most of its smart-city expertise. Hong Kong should too
- Readers discuss how to give Hong Kong’s recovering economy a boost, the demand for ethnic minorities to learn Chinese to be accepted as Hongkongers, disrupted Airport Express services, and the call for Russia to pay Ukraine war reparations
Hong Kong’s post-pandemic economic recovery will take time, so the government should be more proactive in exporting its expertise in smart cities, which will bring new and huge business opportunities to different sectors.
Singapore has demonstrated how to make good use of its experience to boost the economy. For example, the Singapore Land Authority, which facilitates the effective use of geospatial data in Singapore and was a co-creator of the impressive real-time, interactive 3D map Virtual Singapore, has gone one step further and created business potential by sharing this experience with other countries.
In April, it signed a memorandum of understanding with the Estonian Land Board to pave the way for “deeper knowledge sharing...in geodesy, precise positioning infrastructure, 3D mapping, remote sensing, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data interoperability”.
In June, the Land Transport Authority signed another MOU with the Seoul metropolitan authorities. This covers a number of smart mobility initiatives, including efforts to encourage a pedestrian-centric and “car-lite” lifestyle to improve sustainability and liveability.
Singapore is actively seeking opportunities to share its smart city experience, not only with mainland China, other members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and neighbouring regions, but also with European cities.