Smart City Is NOT Merely A Project by the Government

Smart City becomes one of innovations that are believed to help Indonesia reaching the next level. Jakarta, Makassar, Bandung, and Yogyakarta are among those who have tried adopting the concept. Question is, what does it take to be perfect?

The Smart City concept was originated since there was a dramatic shift of population in urban areas which encouraged the people, town developers, businessmen, and the government to build a new vision, a smart city. There’s actually no exact definition to this concept. Yet.

Ade Tjandra, MNC Play Media’s Director of Commercial, argued, “Smart City is merely a concept. To build a proper smart city, we need to build a proper infrastructure.”

Proper infrastructure indeed is required in smart city development, thus explaining why the government needs to invest big. The DKI Jakarta Local Government has dedicated Rp 30 billion to smart city development this year. As FutureGov reported, 60% of the budget will be allocated to build proper infrastructure, including an operation center which is used to monitor and respond every single complaint the citizens have.

After ensuring the infrastructure, the system will result various information. For cities that aim to be “smart”, all information must be managed collectively within one single platform, thus they may be managed efficiently and properly in real time to enable the government and its people communicating through mobile devices or any other media.

Another challenge to smart city development is the issue of management. If the required infrastructure is there, a professional management should be given as well.

“If the infrastructure is available already, then it must be managed well. This is a challenge to the bureaucrats, as there are examples of exceptional programs by the government that get disappear just like that due to unprofessional management. Something good must be well managed,” Tjandra said.

He continued that the government should assign private players to handle this matter.

According to ISID Indonesia’s General Manager Dicky Widjaja, Indonesia has indeed been ready for the smart city concept in platform, but not in infrastructure. Just like Tjandra, he also highlighted that it takes proper contribution from everyone to realize this smart city concept.

He further said that regulation is not less crucial then the other two. This is to keep the relations positive and being continuously upheld.

“Aside from the government, citizens’ role is also crucial. Since the very objective of this concept is to let citizens forming a community in which they may live conveniently there (smart city), then their role is sorely needed, along with the role of the government and IT vendors which provide the IT solution and the required infrastructure,” he concluded.