Awards Given to 12 Smart Cities

KOMPAS/RONY ARIYANTO NUGROHO

Surabaya Mayor Tri Rismaharini receives the 2018 Indonesia Smart City Index award, which was handed over by Editor in Chief of Kompas Daily Ninuk Mardiana Pambudi at Kompas Gramedia Building, Jakarta, Wednesday (09/01/2019). The city of Surabaya won the highest score in the Metropolitan City category. The first rank in the Big City category was reached by the City of Denpasar, Medium City category by the City of Manado, and the Small City by Padangpanjang.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS – Kompas daily presented the 2018 Indonesian Smart City Index (IKCI) awards to 12 cities on Wednesday (9/1/2019). The awards were given to cities deemed to have successfully implemented smart city concepts based on the six-dimension weighted assessment developed by international smart city strategist Boyd Cohen.

The six dimensions, known as the Smart City Wheel, encompass smart environment, smart mobility, smart government, smart economy, smart people and smart living. Smart people, with indicators of internet connectivity, cellular phone penetration, public participation, level of education, immigration and prevalence of creative industries, weighed the heaviest in the IKCI 2018 assessment.

The assessment, which involved 12 experts, came up with 12 cities with the highest scores divided into four categories: Metropolis (Surabaya, Semarang, South Tangerang), Big City (Denpasar, Surakarta, Malang), Medium-Sized City (Manado, Salatiga, Yogyakarta) and Small City (Padang Panjang, Sungai Penuh, Solok). Jakarta’s five municipalities were not included in the assessment as they have no independent city councils and budgets.

“Sociologically, it is the people who are smart. Indeed, there is the internet, applications and platforms, but the core of it all is a sense of togetherness,” University of Indonesia sociologist and IKCI 2018 jury panelist Daisy Indira Yasmin said during the IKCI 2018 awards ceremony at the Kompas Gramedia Building in Jakarta on Wednesday (9/1). Attending the event were all the mayors of the award-winning cities or their representatives.

Technically, the assessment was based on data gathered by Statistics Indonesia (BPS) and several other agencies. A total of 93 autonomous cities in four categories in line with Government Regulation (PP) No. 26/2008 on national spatial planning were assessed.

A range of 0 to 100 was used in the IKCI 2018 assessment, comprising a score of 0 to 90 for weighted dimensional assessment and a score of 0 to 10 for experts’ assessments.

People as development targets

Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) regional planning department lecturer Ridwan Sutriadi, an IKCI 2018 jury panelist, said Indonesia had been increasingly urbanized in the past 50 years. The government must arrange investment to not only go to metropolises (with populations of more than 1 million) but also to medium-sized cities (with populations of between 100,000 and 500,000) and small cities (with populations of less than 100,000).

Investment should be accompanied by smart management to ensure that it is properly targeted at people’s welfare.

Kompas chief editor Ninuk Mardiana Pambudy said cities would be the ultimate destination of human migration. Currently, about 50 percent of Indonesians live in cities.

“This natural development must be accompanied by adequate city management for the people,” she said. She said that since its inception, Kompas has provided space for innovative efforts aimed at realizing better and more sustainable human lives.

Cities’ response

Manado Mayor Vicky Lumentut said that the smart city award was in line with the city’s “Smart Manado” vision that aimed to better serve the people and increase people’s welfare through several programs, including the Cerdas Command Center (C3). Manado is ranked first among medium-sized cities, beating 56 other cities in the category.

Surabaya Mayor Tri Rismaharini said that winning awards had never been her administration’s goal. “For us, governing means striving for people’s welfare,” she said.

Padang Panjang Mayor Fadly Amran shared the sentiments, saying that human development, achieved through quality education, among other things, was at the core of the smart city concept. He said human quality is the main factor of city development.

Denpasar Mayor Ida Bagus Rai Dharmawijaya Mantra said that through community development smart cities would last despite changes of administration. She said creative economy development is among the top priorities. (NDY/INA/BOW/TAN/E07)