Singapore wants to lead the smart city revolution

TECHi's Author Louie Baur
Opposing Author Techinasia Read Source Article
Last Updated Originally published May 14, 2015 · 7:20 AM EDT
Techinasia View all Techinasia Two Takes by TECHi Read the original story Published May 14, 2015 Updated January 30, 2024
TECHi's Take
Louie Baur
Louie Baur
  • Words 95
  • Estimated Read 1 min

There’s much more to Singapore’s ambitions to become the world’s first “smart nation” than what you see on the surface. Many countries have already started to make their cities smarter, and it’s only a matter of time before every major city in the developed world turns into a “smart city.” As one of the world’s only true city-states, Singapore is in a unique position to set itself up as the “smart city” exporter from which other nations get the expertise and supplies they need to build their own smart cities. 

Techinasia

Techinasia

  • Words 167
  • Estimated Read 1 min
Read Article

Singapore has a plan to build a tech utopia – a real-life tomorrowland where inhabitants lead blissful lives under the auspices of all-seeing tech overlords. It calls this the Smart Nation initiative. There’s nothing quite like it. It’s an ambitious government project to use technology from public research and the private sector to improve the lives of Singaporeans, generate jobs, and – in the words of Vivian Balakrishnan, the geeky minister overseeing Smart Nation – create a “cohesive” society. For months, the state’s public relations machinery pitched Smart Nation as the country’s future, a silicon add-on to the garden city. That, I think, is just phase one. What Singapore is really working towards is becoming the model city for the world – an exporter of expertise to anyone who aspires to the same goal. Singapore exporting Smart Nation is inevitable. The country ranks 12th in the world by export value. With a tiny population of 5.4 million, it can’t rely on domestic consumption to fuel its economy.

Source

NOTE: TECHi Two-Takes are the stories we have chosen from the web along with a little bit of our opinion in a paragraph. Please check the original story in the Source Button below.

Balanced Perspective

TECHi weighs both sides before reaching a conclusion.

TECHi’s editorial take above outlines the reasoning that supports this position.

More Two Takes from Techinasia

What makes WeChat so much better than other messaging apps?
What makes WeChat so much better than other messaging apps?

It's almost as hard for Chinese companies to break out of the country as it is for Western companies to…

Alibaba wants to bring e-commerce to rural areas
Alibaba wants to bring e-commerce to rural areas

Somewhere around 600 million people live in the Chinese countryside, and Alibaba has spent years trying to turn them into customers.…

Chinese consumers are tired of all these iPhone clones
Chinese consumers are tired of all these iPhone clones

Chinese companies used to be able to make some serious cash by creating a decent iPhone clone and then selling…

Xiaomi is considering going public
Xiaomi is considering going public

Xiaomi is second only to Uber in terms of how much people are anticipating its IPO, and although CEO Lei Jun…