Indonesian cities are facing challenges implementing smart city concepts and meeting the goal of ‘Movement Towards 100 Smart Cities’ by 2045 due to insufficient knowledge in identifying appropriate action steps. The latest YCP Soldiance’s report, “Can Indonesia Achieve 100 Smart Cities by 2045?: Accelerating Implementation Through Business Collaboration” suggests that collaboration with private sectors is a critical instrument paving the way for accelerating smart city development, with opportunities presented throughout the six pillars of a smart city; governance, people, economy, mobility, living, and environment.
The Current Smart Cities in Indonesia: Jakarta and Bandung
A smart city utilizes technology and communication technologies (ICT) to increase operational performance, enhance the quality of government services and the well-being of people. As two pioneer cities, Jakarta and Bandung have been able to boost their smart city implementation through extensive government involvement and collaborations with various stakeholders.
Jakarta’s collaboration concept is called ‘Smart Collaboration,’ where the local government of DKI Jakarta invites digital companies, start-ups, and tech giants to work together. The collaboration focuses on the utilization of technological resources possessed by these companies to accelerate the implementation.
Meanwhile, Bandung is collaborating with the government, academics, business, and local community to uphold their city tagline called ‘Livable and Lovable City.’ The city is also working alongside other global cities such as Seoul, Paris, Breswegen, Rio de Janeiro to exchange expertise in urban economy and planning, transportation, technology, and e-government.
Potential Collaboration for Smart Cities Development
Collaboration opportunities in smart governance and smart people are available for tech companies to provide digitalization, big data, artificial intelligence, and educational start-ups such as Ruangguru, Zenius, and HarukaEdu that can help widen and automate the service and access across both sectors.
There is also great potential for collaboration across smart mobility and economy for ride-hailing start-ups (e.g., Go-Jek, Grab) and e-commerce companies (e.g., Tokopedia, Bukalapak, Blibli) that can provide easy access to trade and services for citizens.
The implementation of smart living and the environment can be accelerated by working with healthtech start-ups (e.g., Halodoc, Alodokter) and renewable energy companies (e.g., Sylendra Power, Forbetric, and Warung Energi) that possess advanced technological know-how.
Advancing Smart Cities’ Progress Through Collaboration
Much work remains to be done to fully realize the smart city potential. The government welcomes the opportunity to work with private players without restricting the type of collaborations and collaborators, as long as the goals remain consistent with the overall smart city objectives. Where collaborations have been the norm, companies and other businesses can address gaps by taking on cooperation in the development of smart city initiatives and speeding up the implementation.