(From left to right): John Low, Jefri Clyde, Azizah Ali, Kumar Tharmalingam, Joel Goh and Khaidzir Abdul Rasip at the Smart City forum
By AISYAH SUWARDI
ACCORDING to the world population review, Kuala Lumpur, as of 2017, has an estimated population of 7.25 million people, which constituted 23% of Malaysia's population.
By 2035, it was predicted that Kuala Lumpur would become a megacity with a population of over 10 million people.
The growing city which is densely populated needs a smart solution to address the possibility of being overly populated. Is the concept of a smart city the way to go?
In conjunction with National Innovative and Creative Economy expo 2017 (NICE 17’), Malaysia Biennial 100YC program has organised a forum titled “Shaping Smart Cities and Future Lifestyle” at Technology Park on Oct 13.
Five experts in their respective fields had been invited to share some of the challenges and opportunities to implement the smart city concept in Kuala Lumpur and what do they define as an intelligent city.
Among the panellist that appeared included AJC Planning Consultant director Ahmad Jefri Clyde, AREA Management Sdn Bhd property consultant Kumar Tharmalingam, One Commercial Partner Microsoft Asia Pacific business development director Azizah Ali, Iskandar Regional Development Authority (IRDA) senior vice president Sr. Khaidzir Abdul Rasip and Think City programme manager Joel Goh.
John Low, a partner at Roland Berger, was the moderator for the day.
Based on his 38 years observation as a town planner in Malaysia, Clyde mentioned that one of the most significant challenges faced by Malaysia in becoming a smart city would be the lack of planning in the Greater Kuala Lumpur.
“When a big city like Kuala Lumpur has no master plan at all, it indicates the ‘smartness’, or in this case, the non-smartness of the city to be built without one,” said Clyde.
He explained that there is a need for all the authorities in Malaysia to have a committee and sit down together to discuss on any development that is going to be built so that each party could come up with a well-planned development.
Citing Medini as an example, Khaidzir said that back in 2012, when the Prime Minister launches the smart city framework of Iskandar, IRDA has been one of the companies who take on the initiative and work on the idea.
“Currently, we are taking baby steps towards the implementation of a smart city in our development,” said Khaidzir, who added that they are working to incorporate the elements of a smart city into Medine, including a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system.
Joel Goh from Think City, however, felt differently about the term smart city.
“I personally dislike the term smart city because it has been used by so many parties and being thrown here and there just for the sake of gaining the interest of people.
“According to the general definition, a smart city is a city that leverages digital technology to help improve citizen’s quality of life. However, I think the real definition of a smart city should be about creating smarter citizens and empowering them in their community and enable them to improve their standard of living,” said Goh.
For example, Goh said that at Sembawang MRT station, a particular crosswalk has been a constant problem to the public as a covered walkway can’t be built due to restrictions and thus leaving the citizens to be drenched in the rain as they cross the road.
“As a social experiment, four bright polytechnic students put a bunch of umbrella on each side of the crosswalk so that people could use the umbrella and return it for the other people to use it.
“The experiment failed at first as the citizens who took the umbrella thought this was some marketing gimmick from some companies, so they brought those umbrella home. Realising this, the station put a volunteer on each side of the crosswalk to teach the public how to use the service properly.
“What happened next was amazing as once the citizens have been taught what is the purpose of the umbrella, not only they return the umbrella accordingly, they also donate their umbrella for the use of others,” he added.
Goh pointed out technology has always been the enabler of a smart city, but most importantly, it is the citizens themselves that need to become smart with ingrained civic consciousness. This will eventually lead to a higher quality of life.
“Every young person who graduates at 22, no matter where he was born, never goes home. Even among us in this room, I can guarantee that only 10% of us was from Kuala Lumpur originally, the rest are all migrants,” said Kumar Tharmalingam from AREA management.
“If we want Medini to become a smart city, we will need people to migrate there. Without people, there’s no point implementing smart city concept as no one would live there,” Kumar added.
Sharing on her experience as a business development director at One Commercial Partner Microsoft Asia Pacific, Azizah Ali revealed how Barcelona had become one of the famous smart city in the world.
“The mayor collaborated with the private sectors and the community to think of a way to help boost their country’s tourism industry.
“The private sector and the community, in this case, about 250 students, participated in a hackathon competition to come up with an app that could solve their problem. The winning project was a collaboration between the students and the private sector, and thus together they made Barcelona a smart city,” said Azizah.
The efforts made by the people of Barcelona demonstrated that it is not only the government responsibility to affect change. The private sector and the community should actively participate and contribute their ideas to build a smart city by 2035.
