The Digital Economy Promotion Agency (Depa) announced plans to officially announce the first batch of four smart cities designated under its development scheme at Thailand Smart City Week scheduled for mid-October 2020.
These four smart cities have met five categories for smart city transformation. They are given two years for development to become smart cities. The Depa president and chief executive stated that if these four designated cities fail to meet the smart city requirements within two years, they would have their smart city certificates revoked.
There are five categories for smart city consideration. First, they must have a clear geographical boundary. Second, they need to have infrastructure investment and development plans. Third, they have to design an open and secure city data platform. Fourth, they must have a sustainable management model. Finally, they need to come up with smart city solutions in any or all of seven dimensions: economy, mobility, energy, living, people, governance; and environment.
The Depa President stated that the smart city development project is part of the government’s 20-year national development strategy to create liveable cities with an eco-friendly landscape. The government wants to see 100 smart cities by 2024, he said.
The Depa collaborated with partners to hold Thailand Smart City Week 2020 showcasing digital technologies to steer people-centric smart city development from 16 to 22 October. The event, which was held in both online and offline formats, aimed to attract 50,000 participants for the virtual event and 200,000 for offline showcases.
The physical event was held at True Digital Park, Samyan Mitrtown and the Depa office. The online content from the event will be kept on the websites for a year.
The event offered space for business negotiation, while activities included Smart City Plays, which demonstrated digital technology and innovation adoption. Meanwhile, at Smart City Learns, experts shared knowledge and ideas about smart cities. The Smart City Week also hosted a hackathon for people seeking the right digital solutions. Another activity is Smart City Meets, which exhibits advanced digital technologies and innovations created to accelerate smart city development.
Several cities in seven provinces have been committed to pursuing smart city development. They are in Phuket, Chiang Mai, Khon Kaen, Chon Buri, Rayong, Bangkok and Chachoengsao.
According to another article, the Chairman of the Board of Commissioners at Digital Economy Promotion Agency (depa), presided over the opening of Thailand Smart City Week 2020, stated that Thailand Smart City Week 2020 aims to move Thailand forward to become a world-class smart city as well as driving the development of smart cities in Thailand and abroad.
The event serves as the bridge to connect people in general with the advanced technologies and innovations to facilitate the smart urbanization, technological adoptions and digital transformations. The ultimate goal is to enhance economic and social development sustainably.
Smart city development is regarded as a global agenda that people around the world are greatly interested in as it is fundamental for economic and social development. Smart city development will be driven by the collaboration between state agencies, officials and local people in each designated area, particularly the public and private sectors.
The aim is to achieve the same ambitious goal to develop a more liveable, modern city with a commitment to helping people have a better quality of life. The Depa has always prioritized and carried out a smart city development policy in alignment with the 20-year national development strategy.
Meanwhile, the MDES laid out the highly-efficient digital infrastructure across the country as part of the roadmap to Thailand 4.0 model. Therefore, smart city development is the government’s core mechanism initiated to help narrow society disparities as well as helping to promote a fairly distributed growth and prosperities in each region across the country, he added.