Smart cities – easier said than done

CITIES have always been engines of growth and development. However, this has only been widely recognised in the last two decades or so. It may be useful to recall that in the 1970s and 1980s, Marxist scholars saw cities as "theatres of accumulation" where capitalists exploited workers.

Many countries have taken steps to make their cities attractive not only to the local residents, but also foreign investors and workers. In the last 10 years or so, the emphasis has been on making cities attractive to what is popularly known as the "creative class", such as computer geeks, artists, engineers and other professionals.

The World Bank has just released the Malaysian country paper on development. Besides providing the recent economic developments and economic outlook, it also proposes that Malaysia develops smart cities to spearhead economic growth.

About half of the 96 page report is devoted to smart cities and what can be done to realise them (The World Bank: Malaysia Economic Monitor – Smart Cities, November 2011).

According to the authors of the report, smart cities are innovative, sustainable and resilient. The report provides recommendations on what can and must be done to develop smart cities.

For example, according to the report, the cities should have world class universities and the ability to attract and retain skilled workers, thus creating hubs of innovation. In order to go green, the authors point to the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Among other things, this requires a more compact urban form. It also requires reduction in the generation of solid wastes and an efficient solid waste management. For the development of resilient cities, the report recommends that the cities must take steps to prevent the occurrence of natural disasters and have a system to mitigate social and economic consequences if these do happen.

Making suggestions that Malaysia develop smart cities as the engines of growth is the easy part. The real challenge is turning the towns and cities into smart cities.

For example, in the issue of producing and retaining creative people, Malaysian universities are not doing well in international rankings. Worse, many well educated young Malaysians are flocking to cities in Europe, United States and Australia. Even Chinese cities have attracted Malaysia's accountants and engineers.

On the other hand, Malaysian cities are attracting comparatively less educated youths from Asia and possibly Africa.

The call to develop compact cities is likely to be ignored unless political leaders, planners and even non-governmental organisation leaders undergo a mind-set change.

Urban planning and development control have allowed and even facilitated urban sprawl. Recently, there have been talks about developing urban conglomerations as engines of growth. In the central region, there is Greater Kuala Lumpur which will encompass ten municipalities. Then there is Greater Penang.

On the issue of green cities, national and municipal leaders and planners have been talking about the development of sustainable cities since 1992, when Malaysia was a signatory to the Rio Declaration on Development and Environment at the United Nations Conference on Development and Environment in Rio de Janeiro, more popularly known as the Earth Summit. Yet, little has been done.

On the contrary, the use of private vehicles has been given priority. Many in authority still believe that the only way to solve urban transport problems is to build more highways.

Furthermore, as of March this year, apart from Selangor, Perak and Penang, solid waste management and public cleansing in Peninsular Malaysia have been the responsibility of the federal government.

But as noted by the authors of The World Bank report, "the federalisation of solid waste management in peninsular Malaysia is innovative and groundbreaking, but hitherto no country in the world has successfully centralised these essentially local functions".

Is this United Nations-speak for disagreeing with the system adopted by Malaysia?

The greatest challenge to the development of smart cities is what the authors of the report refer to as "smart governance". This depends heavily on the performance of the local authorities and their relationships with the state and federal government.

If they could not even keep the towns and cities clean or cannot enforce the parking laws and development control regulations effectively, what chance is there for them to succeed in developing smart cities? 

Source: TheSunDaily, By: Goh Ban Lee

Posted in: smart city