An impressive figure of $63.4 billion has been earmarked for investment in Smart City technology in the Asia Pacific region, as per a report from Navigant Research. The investment will be spread out until the year 2023 and the funded initiatives will address the core concerns brought up by rapid urbanisation in these nations. According to Navigant Research Research Director Eric Woods, Smart City technology is fast becoming a critical element of the future progress of these nations.
Asia Pacific as a driver of global urbanisation trends
Surprising as it may be, the fact is that Asia Pacific nations are now the forerunners in the global scene in many ways. One critical area where these nations are changing traditional mindsets and setting new trends is urban development. These trends are being leveraged in a most effective way by the respective governments to take the nations to new heights. This, again, is a strategy that more developed economies are keen to adopt and integrate into their existing policy structures. To retain leadership in this arena, Asia Pacific nations will need to make sufficient investments in the necessary infrastructure.
The focal points for the investment
The massive investment is backed by a planned spending strategy. The main areas of focus for the investment will be reduction of energy and other resource use in urban areas, explore alternate energy use, pave the way for future growth at a faster pace. Of course, the challenges of urbanisation and the increasing demand from the growing urban population will also be addressed through the proposed investments. Towards this end, these Asia Pacific economies have already laid the foundation by launching initiatives to integrate intelligent technologies, mine accurate high quality data and utilise this data in myriad ways.
Adoption of non- traditional methods is in the offing
In their bid to find solutions to key problems that are arising from the rapid urbanisation, these economies have already started exploring non- traditional solutions and will continue to do so. The main reason behind this is that the society and the individual have transformed beyond recognition with the advent of technology. Age old solutions are no longer relevant in current times nor will they succeed in resolving the unique challenges arising today.
To give an example, health care initiatives that depend on the patient walking in to a health care facility may have worked perfectly a decade ago. Today, there are options to provide basic health care and monitoring without requiring that the individual leave their home. The urban population is aware of the technological advancements that make this possible and they demand these services. This necessitates the adoption of new age solutions that are more in line with the expectations of the new age citizen and also more efficient than traditional ones.
