Smart economy
and smart cities

Digitization and disruptive technologies and sustainable development are changing public governance, business strategies, employment and more generally our way of living together. We are talking about a new so-called Smart Economy.

Smart Economy is defined as the main base of urban development in a smart community. This model is based on a series of concepts to promote the development, sustainability and attractiveness for new investment, the main ones are: e-business, e-commerce, increase of productivity, employment and innovation in it and generation of new products and services, new models and opportunities for business and entrepreneurship. Matter, and for many reasons that one of the main objectives of the performance of these tasks is mainly a return on the investment, for it is necessary to know the economic impact of the projects to be carried out and whether or not are able to allow savings for the community and be sustainable over time.

Smart economy aims to improve business life cycle, to make easier and faster to find & access business services, participate in city economic or urban initiatives, communicate with and receive information, contribute to urban development, while staying open to the global environment.

Smart economy presents some challenges:

• support innovation and entrepreneurship to “smart” the city
• strengthens eco-responsible citizenships
• empowers the economic stakeholders on new societal and environmental challenges
• strengthen collaboration between the public and the private sector in the design and planning of urban projects.
• promote open data and e-gov by deploying accessible and efficient platforms
• optimize resources and hunt down waste
• make simplified and digitized procedures accessible
• set up a smart public procurement approach and practices,
• produce performance and improve the ecosystem

Boyd Cohen described the evolution of smart city concept penetration as a three-stage process:

• The first stage Smart Cities 1.0 is characterized by projects offered by technology vendors to municipal managers who were not fully prepared to understand all the impacts of technological solutions on the city.
• The second stage, Smart Cities 2.0, is marked by cities initiatives that see the potential of technology, want to define projects focused on technological solutions, seeking for help (knowledge transfer, technical and financial support, partnership with private sector and start-up) to put this transformation into practice.
• In the third stage, Smart Cities 3.0, the disruptive element would be the total engagement of stakeholders within the governance and the services design.

A smart city (urban area sounds better) is an innovative city that uses ICTs and other technologies to improve quality of life, efficiency of urban operation and services, competitiveness, while ensuring to meet present and future generations needs with respect to economic, social, territorial balance and environmental issues.

A Smart City places people and economic stakeholders at the center of its development, incorporates ICTs into urban management and planning, uses these elements as tools to stimulate the design of innovative services within collaborative planning and eco-citizenship participation.

himilcon helps governments and local authorities define their smart city program. Smart cities program aims to create attractive, participative, innovative and resilient urban environment encouraging creative solutions, thus creating jobs and reducing inequality.