A delegation composed of smart city and IoT companies gathered in Thailand for a Smart City Industry Forum and the Taiwan-Thailand Industrial Collaboration Summit (TTICS) among other activities.
The Taiwanese Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) and it’s Industrial Development Bureau (IDB) partnered with the Institute for Information Industry (III) and Thailand’s Internet of Things Association (TIOT). The aim is to foster collaboration between the two regions’ smart city sectors.
A memorandum of understanding was also signed. It aims to create development trials in Thailand around smart city projects. This cooperation will lead to clustering of innovative technologies with strong commercial outcomes.
Taiwan’s capacity to support smart cities is growing. The region is looking to work closely with partners to help the world innovate on the future of cities and tech. The potential for drone technology to improve smart city applications were also discussed.
In addition, six other companies are attending the smart city week in Bangkok which aims to bring together the best technology in Taiwan to find the strongest partner projects around the world across six areas, including Smart Transportation, Smart Healthcare, Smart Security, Smart Energy Conservation, Smart Agriculture and Smart Retail, the platform brings together relevant partners to accelerate solutions.
Thailand is pushing for more collaboration with its international partners.
In related news, Thailand’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, as Chair of ASEAN this year, noted that the group is now guiding 26 cities under the ASCN into becoming Smart Cities, which will create sustainability, economic and social opportunities and investment.
Thailand already has three smart cities, namely Phuket, Sriracha and Bangkok and is in the process of developing other areas into smart cities.
This year, national leaders will gather to share information, transfer technology to solve smart city problems and disseminates various case studies on becoming a smart city by following a sustainable pattern.
The conference, now in its second year, will include activities include like ASCN Annual Meeting 2019, a closed meeting of 26 pilot smart cities to determine their framework, before summarizing all plans and submitting them to the 35th ASEAN Summit which will be held in November 2019.
A smart city exhibition will feature 70 exhibitors including entrepreneurs and government and private agencies worldwide, who will showcase innovative technologies related to smart cities. In addition, experts and leaders in smart city development from Thailand and abroad will speak.
To further push its smart city agenda, Thailand announced that plans are well underway on its smart city centre in Bangkok. The masterplan shows that the centre aims to become a new global landmark, attracting businesses, tourists and locals.
It will include offices, retail, hotels, residences, cultural and social spaces – all based around a central 10,000 sqm Civic Plaza.
The entire district will be enabled by a smart centralised infrastructure system, which the company says will be the first of its kind in Thailand for private development.
Over 250,000 smart sensors will underpin facility management and preventive maintenance.
First announced in 2017 and described as a ‘city-within-a-city’, almost half the land area will be devoted to green and open spaces.
The centre’s master plan prioritises accessibility and ease of navigation. It will directly connect to the Metropolitan Rapid Transit System as well as six road access points, including the expressway. it will also promote walkability across the district.
In this way, Thailand is pushing forward its smart city agenda across many fronts – international collaborations, hosting the ASEAN smart city summit and continuing the development of its new smart hub.
