Dhaka not among 109 smart cities: 2020 Smart City Index

The Daily Star  September 18, 2020
Star Online Report

Dhaka has not made it to the list of 109 smart cities in the world, according to the 2020 Smart City Index.

The index based on the economic and technological data, as well as their citizens’ perceptions of how ‘smart’ their cities are, was published yesterday by The Institute for Management Development, in collaboration with Singapore University for Technology and Design (SUTD).

Singapore, Helsinki and Zurich have come top in the 2020 Smart City Index, in a year that saw many European cities fall in the rankings.

Hundreds of citizens from 109 cities were surveyed in April and May this year and asked questions on the technological provisions of their city across five key areas – health and safety, mobility, activities, opportunities and governance.

“It is of course too early to draw the lessons from COVID. However, it is clear that we are at a critical juncture, where the sanitary crisis is still very much with us, while the economic and social crisis that it will entail has hardly started,” said Bruno Lanvin, president of the IMD Smart City Observatory.

Bengaluru, Mumbai, New Delhi, Hyderabad, Ho Chi Min, Osaka, Tokyo, Shanghai, Beijing and Bangkok are some of the Asian cities which made it to the list.