Introduction
The Smart City Project in Hong Kong is a project by China’s government that aims to improve the quality of life for the people in the city. This project intersects three key elements of social life: urban planning, technology, and government policy making. At its inception in 2017, the project aimed at leveraging Technology to increase the city’s efficiencies. The implementation of Smart City technologies rolled out quite smoothly, translating to increased economic output.
In 2020, the Smart City Project gained renewed momentum as the city’s population went all digital (Cole & Tran, 2022). During the pandemic, the urban population was immersed in technology for planning, communication, transactions, and everything else. In the following years, monumental changes have occurred across the delivery of services and improved social provisions.
The Smart City Project in Hong Kong focuses on four key tenets: smart mobility, smart living, innovative environment, and intelligent people. Under Smart Mobility, the project works towards a more efficient transport system across the city. This will be achieved by deploying intelligent traffic management, providing real-time transit information to commuters, and incentivizing the use of electric vehicles (Lai et al., 2020). Smart Living, on the other hand, aims to streamline social services such as education, healthcare, security, and sanitation. Most of this has been achieved by building smart homes, integrating telemedicine in healthcare facilities, and installing technological safety systems that surveil the city.
In line with Smart Living, the Smart People pillar of the project drives all-round empowerment of the urban population to ensure that people lead a decent lifestyle. For instance, small towns within the city have established learning centers where young people are taught digital skills so they can start earning a living at an early age. The umbrella of all the tenets of the project is Smart Environment.
Hong Kong is a highly industrialized city with more untapped growth potential. Accelerated industrialization is linked with environmental concerns that affect the population’s wealth (Business Environment Council, 2020). The Smart Environment angle applies to all initiatives under the Smart City project to ensure proper use of resources for a sustainable future.
Evaluation of Project Progress
The roll-out of Smart Cities in Hong Kong has yielded notable changes in parts of the city. Important to note is that the project is still underway since all four tenets are continuously under implementation. According to The Business Environment Council’s report on the project, the project’s success should be evaluated against Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
Theoretically, the project has to fulfill the population’s hygiene needs, provide opportunities, promote inclusion, enhance the quality of life, and enable people to lead high-quality lives in general, all in that order. Gauging the Smart City Project from this view calls for assessing the project’s impact on the hygiene factors (food, shelter, education, and healthcare).
In light of this, the projects’ Smart Environment and Smart Mobility components have registered commendable milestones compared to smart people and smart living. In the years after 2020, smart mobility has gained popularity through e-payment systems and monitoring passenger flow on MTR. Reports indicate that increased ownership of electric vehicles in Hong Kong has resulted in an evident shortage of charging stations in the city. As a result, the government in China has directed about $2 billion to enable the installation of charging areas within the city (Cole & Tran, 2022). From a holistic perspective, Hong Kong has modern roads that help move goods and services for high economic productivity.
The Smart Environment component’s success is partly attributed to the Smart City Project and increased global concerns over Climate Change. One of the ways Hong Kong’s city management has engendered an innovative environment is by installing smart bins on almost all streets in the city. This move has been monumental in the promotion of high standards of hygiene because it mitigates the overflowing of waste in the city’s environment. Urban planning data analytics also map the areas with higher populations and advise the city management to place more smart bins for people to litter. Both bright environments and smart mobility across the city are a product of the positive reception of the projects by the people and structured efforts by the government.
Drawbacks of the Project Implementation
Smart Living and Smart People are the other two components of the Smart City Project that lag. According to The Institute of Engineering and Technology, implementing initiatives that promote smart people and smart living depends on people’s perspectives about the initiatives (The Institution of Engineering Technology, 2019). For instance, Hong Kong is a fast-paced city with a more significant percentage of the population thriving in export and manufacturing business. The rapid market changes compel people to stay up to speed. Due to this, the population cannot invest in acquiring long-life skills to help them explore alternative income-generating activities.
Moreover, Smart Living is anchored on accessibility to social amenities. While the government does a good job of providing the services, there is a cost attached. Many people cannot pay for healthcare or decent education to be equipped with the skills to become wise people. Therefore, the government has to look into practical policies that offer subsidies for the services while encouraging people to invest in education and learning skills (Ma & Lam, 2019). The convergence of these interests leaves the government at a crossroads in allocating its capital resources and balancing all needs in the city.
Will the Project Succeed?
There is a high likelihood that the Smart City Project in Hong Kong will be successful. This is due to the project’s strong foundation for the two crucial requirements for implementing smart cities. One technical requirement for a smart city to be successful is that it must have a standards-based IT system and infrastructure to enable the execution of data-driven initiatives.
Secondly, a smart city must be supported by public institutions, local and state governance, and citizens (Business Environment Council, 2022). Hong Kong’s Smart City initiative enjoys both because Hong Kong is the hub of Technology. The population embraces Technology, as shown by the massive migration to digital platforms during the COVID-19 pandemic. Also, Hong Kong City residents recognize the importance of the Smart City initiatives in the quality of their lives.
Aside from this, it is essential for the governance of Hong Kong city to acknowledge rising concerns regarding data privacy. As most city residents support using information systems to improve the city, the population is also keen not to give up their privacy (Ma & Lam, 2019). The project’s implementers should inform the public of the measures to uphold individual privacy. Another recommendation is prioritizing the four components in a way that fulfills people’s most basic needs before psychological needs. Once people realize that the initiative serves their basic needs, it will be easier to draw their support because the results of the Smart Cities are evident to them.
Hong Kong has an enormous competitive edge that supports the successful implementation of The Smart City Project. Being the hub of Technology in Asia, the city is assured that the people will consume technologies introduced by the program (Cole & Tran, 2022). In addition to this, Hong Kong has registered macro-economic stability for its formal and informal economic sectors for years. This economic trajectory implies that Hong Kong has enough capital resources to implement smart cities fully without stalling due to resources.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Hong Kong’s Connected Future, the Business Environment Council, and other regulating organizations indicate that Hong Kong is on the right path to its goals. Published reports evaluating the progress of the Smart City Project point out that the city’s state has dramatically improved since implementing Smart City initiatives. A report by China Perspectives reported that Hong Kong had risen from position 27th in 2017 to position 10 in 2020 (The Institution of Engineering Technology, 2019).
Alongside this, the city’s occupants attested that the overall quality of the city had improved as they enjoyed access to services and a clean environment. With proper structures and transparent management, it is anticipated that Hong Kong will realize its goal of becoming a world-class smart city. The success of the project may inspire other cities of the same caliber as Hong Kong to adopt similar efforts to elevate the cities.
References
Cole, A., & Tran, É. (2022). Trust and the smart city: The Hong Kong paradox. China Perspectives, 9-20. Web.
Lai, C. S., Jia, Y., Dong, Z., Wang, D., Tao, Y., Lai, Q. H., Wong, R. T., Zobaa, A. F., Wu, R., & Lai, L. L. (2020). A review of Technical Standards for Smart Cities. Clean Technologies, 2(3), 290–310. Web.
Ma, R., & Lam, P. T. (2019). Investigating the barriers faced by stakeholders in open data development: A study on Hong Kong as a “smart city”. Cities, 92, 36-46. Web.
Business Environment Council (2022). Smart and sustainable city development: Hong Kong and international experiences July 2022. [PDF document]. Web.
The Institution of Engineering Technology (2019). Smart city development in Hong Kong, 1(1), 23-27. Web.
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