Michael Treschow, Chairman of Ericsson Group


Introduction

In January 2010, the Beijing Municipal Government officially announced the goal of building Beijing into a "world city" by 2050. It is believed that the initiative will speed up Beijing’s urban development.

As more and more people are moving into cities and urbanization is accelerating, it is extremely important for us to consider more sustainable solutions for urban development. Ericsson believes that the development of Smart City is an absolute solution. A World City should encompass all the features of a Smart City.

A Smart City means to fulfill the needs and leverage the expressions of its inhabitants, providing
a superior quality of life in a sustainable way by using efficient infrastructures enabled by ICT, which may include e- & m-home, e- & m-office, e- & m-government, e- & m-health, e- & m-commerce and e- & m-education.

As we are now in an era of migrating from a 20th Century physical infrastructure to a 21st Century information-based infrastructure, our future development depends, to a certain extent, on the technologies that we choose today. So, when we discuss how to build Beijing into a world city, we need to think about the fundamental changes that ICT in general and mobile communications in particular have brought to our lives and work.

The development of a Smart City is highly dependent on the ICT base of that city. It requires a reliable and ubiquitous high-speed network infrastructure, fixed and wireless, that allows people, business and government to connect with each other and the systems that manage the infrastructure and services of the city.

Ericsson holds that smart broadband infrastructure is the foundation of a Smart City and is tailored to the individual needs of a city, leveraging available technologies and financial resources. It will play a leading role in improving basic services of a city while ensuring the sustainable development of cites meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Smart ICT solutions for Smart City: A Stockholm story

A Smart City is indeed a sustainable city. While city is a dynamic, organic entity that is constantly evolving, the sustainable city needs ICT to meet its goals and manage its changes. More and more cities are seeing that ICT truly becomes the enabling technology for sustainable cities of the 21st century. 

Let’s take the project of the Stockholm Royal Seaport as an example.

Stockholm is one of 18 global cities participating in the Climate Positive Development Program, with the aim of eliminating CO2 emissions in the district. The program is a part of the Clinton Climate Initiative, which seeks to demonstrate large-scale sustainable urban growth.

Stockholm is a well prepared city which has strong foundations addressing environmental issues using ICT. It has won the EU's 'European Green Capital 2010' award as the first environmental capital city in Europe. The city was also awarded the IT Intelligent Community of the Year award by the Intelligent Community Forum last year.

Stockholm Royal Seaport is one of Stockholm’s three urban development areas with a specific environmental profile.

The development of an environmentally sustainable city district with a genuine city environment will be a global showcase for more sustainable urban development. Innovative environmental technologies and creative solutions will be developed, used and displayed as an example for other cities to follow.

Ericsson is a key partner to the project for the ICT-related work. The low-carbon ICT solutions implemented and encouraged in Stockholm Royal Seaport will enable those living and working there to make smart choices.

The four environmental targets involve developing a climate-positive city district and adapting to future variations in climate. Other targets include making the Royal Seaport fossil fuel-free by 2030, and for individual carbon emissions to be lower than 1.5 tons per person by 2020.

Low-carbon solutions will reduce direct emissions from vehicles and lessen energy usage in buildings and energy production, to create a low-carbon economy.

The strategies to support low-carbon cities include transformative CO2 reductions, such as ICT solutions that provide everyday services in a more energy efficient way; for example, smart grids, virtual meetings, tele-working, e- and m-health and remote education. These services will not completely replace existing systems but will substitute physical meetings when possible.

Obviously, a smart ICT infrastructure is a fundamental requirement for the fulfillment of these solutions and services. More and more governments have recognized the importance of providing ubiquitous high-speed access and shared platforms and given more focus on broadband investments in various ways.

In Stockholm, a subsidiary of the municipality manages a city-wide passive fibre network that is open for use by all service providers to provide ultra-high speed services to homes and businesses.

In Amsterdam, the city government is working with commercial investors to build the passive fibre infrastructure. The municipality has selected a commercial operator to install equipment and provide capacity to service providers on an open access basis.

In Singapore, the government is promoting a similar model to Amsterdam, but offering subsidies to two commercial operators to build a passive fibre network and provide capacity to service providers.

In South Korea, government projects for digital cities are created through a consensus between the major conglomerates ("chaebols"), telecom operators and municipalities. The "U-Korea Master Plan" ultimately includes 60 u-city projects across the country.

In China, the city of Beijing has also announced to invest 76 billion RMB to upgrade its information infrastructure. By the end of 2012, home users are promised to have access to more than 20 megabits of Internet bandwidth and business users up to 100 megabits of bandwidth.
Recommendations and suggestions

Early this year, during the 13th Beijing Municipal people’s Congress, the municipal government promises in its work report to further improve city construction, environmental quality and administration services for building Beijing into an eco-friendly and livable city.

While traditional urban development favored a citizen-centric approach to city projects, the urban development of Beijing should take ICT as a structural foundation and make maximum use of ICT in the management of city operations.

New development approach should take the advantage of the convergence of mobility and broadband and leverage the new technology for the development of Beijing into a smarty city.

Last year, Ericsson worked with WWF on a research project to discuss Low carbon opportunities in the 21st century. A number of specific policy recommendations have been made for governments to commence the development of a plan for ICT assisted low carbon urban development. The following recommendations are listed herewith to the Beijing government:

1.Make ICT a central part of cities strategies and encourage universal access to ICT for all citizens. Mobile broadband can enable a multitude of low carbon services, including an inclusive and collaborative approach to travel substitution that allow for connectivity of rural areas. Support should also be given for solutions that enable synergies between rural and urban development.

2.Shift from 20th century physical infrastructure to 21st century low carbon infrastructure by:

a.incorporating ICT as part of infrastructure investments, and
b.incorporating broadband enabled services as part of city planning;

3.Encourage cross sectoral partnerships with a focus on new and innovative services and support partnerships between industry sectors and other stakeholders to promote a green digital agenda.  Specific measures could include:

a.supporting common measurement of emissions and energy efficiency that a company can contribute to through its products and services, and
b.using public procurement processes to encourage the take up of energy efficiency and low emission technologies;

4.Encourage open innovation for low carbon solutions through policies that include cross sector innovation such as the use of ICT for health, city planning and the use of intelligent technologies to better deliver services.

Conclusion

The integration of smart ICT infrastructure with urban development will accelerate the move towards a Smart City. The smart city infrastructure will change the way the city is managed, improve the delivery of public services and enhance the lives of citizens.

To build Beijing into a World City, the development of Smart City is absolutely a critical step to make Beijing a more attractive place to do business, not only by providing the smart infrastructure and services required by businesses but also by making the city a more attractive and prestigious place to live and work.