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.
The key factor for Singapore’s success is its holistic digital transformation, which drives the whole government to work towards the same goal. At the same time, as a small economy, it is able to transform into one of the world’s best laboratories for digital solutions.
The Virtual Singapore project is one example. Another is self-driving taxis. Singapore launched a trial for the service as early as in 2016, and since then over 50 driverless vehicles including buses and road sweepers have been approved for trials on Singapore’s roads. Taxi operator ComfortDelGro is now expected to pilot two electric self-driving cabs next year. Such valuable experimentation has made Singapore more convincing when sharing its experience abroad.
Transforming urban centres into smart and sustainable cities with advanced technologies has become a common objective for many cities globally. As Hong Kong is leading smart city development in Asia with a number of well-known achievements in education, transport, urban renewal and more, the government should take the lead in promoting these to the outside world. This will also create better development opportunities for Hong Kong talent.
Dr Winnie Tang, adjunct professor, University of Hong Kong
Non-Chinese are Hongkongers as much as Chinese
It ought to go without saying that a child cannot choose where he or she is born, or where he or she grows up.
Moreover, the insinuation that ethnic minorities are somehow lesser than ethnic Chinese or should consider themselves mere guests of the Chinese majority is offensive. Quite aside from the reality that Hong Kong belongs to everyone who was born here or chooses to live here, the reality is that many ethnic minorities, particularly those from the Indian subcontinent, have ancestors who arrived in Hong Kong well before many in the Cantonese-speaking Chinese majority. They are part of the furniture, so to speak, and should be respected as such.
Nicholas Tam, Sai Ying Pun
Way past time to resume Airport Express services
I would like to hear from the relevant authorities as to why trolleys are no longer available at Airport Express stations. I most recently travelled in early June and found the lack of trolleys extremely inconvenient.
The trolley service is at the start and finish of every journey and the impression it leaves matters greatly. I urge the authorities to restore this most basic of service for all travellers as soon as possible.
Khong Wing Yuen, Mid-Levels
Let history be a guide to Ukraine war reparation demand
It is nothing new that a war-torn country is left to pay for the damage it suffered at the hands of the – most of the time – winning country. Now Russia is being asked to pay for the damage it inflicted on Ukraine. How much should this be?
I’m sure some historical data is available. Some rather serious conflicts took place over the past few decades, with some – such as Afghanistan and Iraq – involving Western countries which are supposedly bound by higher standards of integrity.
Should we use the data on reparations provided by the attacker to the attacked countries as a guideline in the Ukraine conflict? Open up the books – many of us are interested.
Roland Guettler, Lai Chi Kok
