Public voting open for 2021 IDC SCAPA finalists

The priorities of smart cities in the Asia–Pacific region have been accelerated over the last few months, as cities grapple with the self-sufficiency implications of tackling a global pandemic. These priorities are intertwined with achieving systemic smart city ecosystem outcomes — something that IDC has been able to track through its Smart City Asia Pacific Awards (SCAPA) program for the past six years.

Having received over 260 smart city initiatives from the public sector and technology suppliers, IDC has listed 70 projects as finalists across 14 functional eService Categories. The 14 eService Categories have been split into three subcategories: Critical Infrastructures, People & Communities and Administration & Economic Affairs. Public voting is now open for the 2021 finalists of the Smart City Asia Pacific Awards, and will remain open until 17 March 2021.

Gerald Wang, Associate Research Director and Head of Public Sector at IDC Asia/Pacific, said that unprecedented global mobility challenges, coupled with evolving remote-working cultural acceptance, has turned city priorities inward towards optimised sustainability and fast-tracked digital and infrastructural deployments, to ensure safe and trusted ecosystems for the movement of people, goods and services.

“2021 will be the year where Asia–Pacific cities take pause to rethink and rebuild their ‘live, learn, work and play’ ideals. These smart city projects indicate monumental efforts made by cities to digitally reimagine the use of city spaces in residential, commercial or industrial, and public spaces,” said Wang.

IDC SCAPA was created to recognise the top smart city initiatives of public sector agencies that have excelled across the 14 smart city functional eService categories. The finalists were selected using IDC’s Smart City Development Index framework, a six-phase benchmarking process that involves input from various stakeholders, including the public.

Public/citizen voting is the second phase of this framework and constitutes 25% in the judging criteria to determine the best of the best in the categories.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/Production Perig