An IT savvy from the US has said that Pakistan has the opportunity to lead the world by initiating smart city projects — technology-based governance and monitoring of services — as a driver for economic growth and development.
Malcolm Woold Field from SAP Labs of the United States, while addressing the audience of an international conference titled “Frontiers of Information Technology (FIT)” organised by the Comsats Institute of Information Technology said that “Pakistan has the political will and the expertise in technology and it is in a strong position to start smart cities.”
He said that a smart city means a city based on technology to improve delivery of services and livability in cities and to ensure long term sustainable economic growth.
He said that Dubai is an example of a pretty smart city because they have made great strides in their living and working standards, healthcare and education— the drivers of economic growth — and Pakistan could afford such cities.
Prior to initiating work on smart city projects, Pakistan must invest in alternative and low cost source of energy projects such as wind and solar to make them functional and maintain connectivity, he suggested.
He termed the alternate energy a global issue suggesting that the governments should fund low cost energy projects besides making technology affordable to individual users.
Responding to a question, he agreed that the smart city project was still a distant dream and gave the example of California saying it was the only state in the US which has adopted technology for sustainable development.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 18th, 2014.
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