Page 4 - International Standards to Shape Smart Sustainable Cities: The Case of Moscow

Foreword

In just seven years, starting in 2011, Moscow, a city with a history
spanning nearly a thousand years, has undergone a tremendous
transformation as it heads towards its tech-savvy future. Today
we are proud to introduce Moscow Smart City with disruptive
technologies: blockchain in an e-voting system, widespread Wi-
Fi network, public online schools, AI-based healthcare and many
more.
As a city with more than 12 million residents, which is equivalent
to the populations of Norway and Switzerland combined,
Moscow must adopt the concept of Smart City to ensure the
well-being of Muscovites, and to allow its administration and
businesses to work more efficiently. This is why one of our
fundamental pillars is to establish a constant dialogue with our
citizens, so establishing the city-as-a-service concept.
Indeed, Moscow has become one of the world leaders in citizen engagement. This has been
made possible because the city has infused its more than 220 public e-services within digital city
management platforms like MOS RU, Crowd Mos, and blockchain-based Active Citizen to name
but a few. These are used by Muscovites to suggest ideas, report local problems, initiate crowd
sourcing and for voting on local matters.

The city of Moscow has reached nearly 100 per cent 4G and high-speed internet coverage. It is
the second-largest Wi-Fi-covered city in the world. Such a high level of connectivity gives
Muscovites unlimited access to new knowledge and data that can drive innovation and result in
a more favorable economic ambience.
One of the best aspects of our actions and achievements is that they are observable and
tangible. For instance, 12 500 new trees have appeared on the streets, greatly improving the
livability of the city. At the same time, the number of pedestrians has been increased by 70 per
cent, indicating that the streets and sidewalks in Moscow have been made more pedestrian-
friendly. Seventy-five per cent of residents have also gone online to express their satisfaction in
our work.

We do believe that the U4SSC’s KPIs for Smart Sustainable Cities will support and foster further
ICT adoption for Moscow and for other smart cities worldwide.
It is an honour for us to be a testing bed for evaluating ICT-based solutions using the U4SSC KPIs,
which is a sign of respect, trust and recognition from the international community in general,
and from the ITU in particular. We recognize the significance of adopting standards. They are
effective tools for gaining new perspectives and the possibility of independent estimation.
I would, therefore, like to express my appreciation to our colleagues from abroad and to the
professional and committed team at ITU in particular for their hard work in advancing global
smart cities development.

Artem Ermolaev
CIO of Moscow (2010-2018)
Head of the Department of Information Technologies

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