“The implementation of smart cities through digital government will enable a faster, easier, more affordable and more efficient process,” said Home Minister Tito Karnavian in his opening remarks at the 6th Annual Meeting ASCN at Hotel Intercontinental, Jimbaran, Bali, on July 12.

The meeting was attended by delegates representing nine ASEAN member countries, including Indonesia, Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, Myanmar, Cambodia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Laos.

Representatives of the government of Japan, South Korea and Australia also attended the event.

The annual ASCN Summit 2023 was also attended by the governors of East Java, East Kalimantan, North Kalimantan, Jambi and Bengkulu, the acting governors of Banten and Bangka Belitung Islands, the deputy governors of Lamung and the Yogyakarta Special Region, the regents of Cilacap and Blora and the mayors of Bitung and Jayapura City.

Representatives from a number of ministries and institutions also attended the event.

The home minister highlighted the result of the research on Smart City Solutions conducted by Thoughtlab, an independent digital agency, which has conducted studies in a number of cities in Southeast Asia.

Several noteworthy points included that the rapid change of technology posed a major challenge for 67 percent of cities in Southeast Asia, all of the leaders of cities in Southeast Asia have made a significant investment in the internet network and artificial intelligence (AI) and also have a plan to continue to make investment in the next three years.

“Fifty percent of smart cities in Southeast Asia have found it difficult to find the right suppliers, partners and consultants. It has also found that 50 percent of city leaders in Southeast Asia say that the health crisis shows the importance of the fast and sustainable operation,” the home minister said.

On top of that, the minister went on to say that 33 percent of city leaders in Southeast Asia were also aware of the importance of the digital transformation and the smart city program for the future of their respective cities. Furthermore, technology has an effect on almost every aspect of human life.

“The technology has developed rapidly year after year to fulfill human needs,” Tito added.

According to the minister, half of the ASEAN community is currently residing in urban areas and an estimated 70 million people are expected to live in urban areas in the region by 2025.

“As a consequence, cities in ASEAN continue to face tough challenges such as traffic congestion, infrastructure, pollution, lack of access to affordable housing and socio-economic disparity. As such, the implementation of smart cities is part of the solution,” he said. 

Therefore, the government has to get ready to set a strategy to cope with the challenges. The sustainable smart cities are important to accelerate economic transformation and technology integration to address the urban challenges and engender new growth, according to Tito.

The Sixth Annual Meeting ASCN was led by Home Ministry director general for regional administration development Safrizal ZA, in his capacity as National Representatives (NR) and Chairman of ASCN 2023.

“We highly appreciate all delegates for their presence and participation. We’d also like to express our thanks to the Home Ministry regional administration development team for their hard work in contributing to the annual meeting ASCN 2023 as part of their effort to make Indonesia’s ASEAN Chairmanship 2023 a success,” Tito concluded.

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