The awards are connected with a smart city survey being conducted by Kompas daily newspaper and the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) with the support of state-owned gas firm PT Perusahaan Gas Negara (PGN). The survey is assessing 93 autonomous cities in the archipelago using criteria such as economic conditions (looking for a smart economy), social interaction between the public and the administration supported by IT (a smart society) and the environmental health (a smart environment).

Based on the survey, 15 cities, five from each population category, have been selected as this year's smart cities.

"The five winning cities with more than 1 million residents are Depok, Bandung, Semarang, Surabaya and Tangerang," said ITB's head of innovation development and entrepreneurship Suhono Harso Supangkat as quoted by kompas.com.

The five winning cities with a population between 200,000 and 1 million people are Balikpapan, Pontianak, Yogyakarta, Malang and Surakarta. And Madiun, Malang, Mojokerto, Bontang and Salatiga make up the winners for the less-than 200,000 residents category.

The awards were given to the cities to highlight their achievements as well as to encourage others to follow their leads and applied smart city concepts.

The smart city index, which was launched on March 24, was initiated to answer challenges around how to wisely manage a city and increase residents' welfare and quality of life. (kes)(++++)

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