Zurich, Oslo and Canberra top smart cities index

A view of Zurich, Switzerland. gettyimagesbank

By Ko Dong-hwan

The Swiss city of Zurich took first place in this year's new smart city index jointly published by an independent academic institution in Switzerland and a Seoul-based global smart city facilitator. The Swiss city was followed by Oslo, Austria and Canberra, Australia.

The index assessing 141 cities was co-produced by the Smart City Observatory, part of the IMD World Competitiveness Center, and World Smart Sustainable Cities Organization (WeGO). It was based on responses from 20,000 people from around the world who were surveyed about 15 aspects of living in their respective cities. The survey asked what the most urgent issues in their cities are, from affordable housing to road congestion, employment and green spaces.

The survey also asked how comfortable respondents felt with technology such as face recognition or data sharing to improve traffic congestion. One of the survey's goals was to find whether tech-based solutions were addressing people's major everyday life concerns.

IMD said the 2023 IMD Smart City Index “differs from other similar indexes by being more citizen-centric.” They said they combined hard data and survey responses to show how technology is enabling cities to address challenges faced by inhabitants to achieve a higher quality of life.

Asian and European cities dominated the top 20 cities, according to IMD. Top Asian cities include Singapore (7th), Beijing (12th), Seoul (16th) and Hong Kong (19th). The finding also demonstrates that “second-tier cities” as far as the smart city concept is concerned, including Montreal, Denver, Lausanne and Bilbao, have increased their “smartness” over the past year, the institution said.

“The global landscape of smart cities is changing,” said IMD's Bruno Lanvin, President of the Smart City Observatory. “Cities and their leaders are becoming more visible on the international stage, and citizens are increasingly valuing inclusion and diversity in the places they choose to live.”

2023 IMD Smart City Index serves as a benchmark for “progress on openness, innovation, inclusivity and sustainability,” the organization said. The index is expected to contribute to WeGO's coming up with finalists for Seoul Smart City Prize in September. WeGO has partnered with IMD to jointly organize the prize.

Financed by the Seoul Metropolitan Government, WeGO ― an acronym of its former title World e-Governments Organization ― has over 100 city governments and corporations across the world as members.

“IMD's Smart City Observatory and WeGO are making great strides towards introducing the upcoming prize as a leading smart city index,” said WeGO's Secretary General Park Jung-sook. “The index opens access to WeGO's network of member cities towards enhanced city assessment and contributes to future research and development.”