Excellencies
Ministers
Distinguished colleagues
Ladies and gentlemen

 

Good morning and let me add my welcome to you to this Ministerial Roundtable on smart cities. Being in one of the biggest and busiest cities in the world, the beautiful and bustling city of Bangkok, it is a very appropriate venue I believe to stage this discussion.

 

UN Habitat has estimated that by the middle of this century 70 per cent of the world’s population will live in urban areas, and with estimates that urban areas will account for roughly 70 per cent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, sustainable development is now a question that cannot be ignored.

 

The rapid growth of cities places tremendous strain on public services and infrastructure, something that city planners have been struggling to cope with for some years.

 

Today’s technology offers a solution to harness the enormous power of ICTs to make cities better places to live.

 

A "smarter" approach to delivering vital services – such as transportation, healthcare, education, public safety, energy and water – can make our cities safer, cleaner.

 

ICTs can dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This is why ITU has been participating in the annual UN Climate Change Conferences - to bring to the world’s attention the power of ICTs to reduce GHG emissions.

 

The provision of internationally standardized ICT solutions will mean that municipalities across the globe will be able to benefit, and innovation can be shared across the world.

 

ITU has always been in the business of developing international standards, standards that ensure interoperability, and are non-discriminatory – which means that anyone, anywhere can develop products and offer services to ITU standards. These standards ensure that the telecommunication networks of the world interoperate, that every telephone and mobile in the world has a unique number, and the ITU fibre optic standards, and broadband standards, are essential to benefit from the power of the Internet.

 

The consequent economies of scale and increased competition, reduces costs for vendors, service providers and consumers.

 

ITU standards improve efficiencies, particularly by reducing energy consumption, and ensure a better quality of service.

 

ITU currently has over 4000 standards and produces more than 200 new standards each year. We have nearly 50 groups with meetings virtually every week of the year where thousands of participants, especially from our industry members, but also from our Member States, and increasingly from our academia members (ITU now has over 64 universities as members) develop standards tailored to meet specific requirements.

 

ITU is working on standards for a multitude of technologies that can target urban problems, including intelligent transport that can be applied to make city streets safer and cleaner; smart water and smart grid to create greater efficiency in these vital utilities; faster broadband technologies to ensure equitable access; cloud computing that offers to power many future applications and opens up tremendous opportunities for developing countries.

 

To address this specific issue we have established a new Focus Group on Smart Sustainable Cities to assess the standardization requirements of cities aiming to improve their social, economic and environmental sustainability through the integration of ICTs in their infrastructures and operations. And I am pleased to see some of its active members here with us this morning.

 

We have two related Focus Groups: one on Smart Water management, meeting for the first time in Lima next month, together with the Focus Group on Smart Sustainable Cities and ITU-T Study Group 5 on Environment and Climate Change; and the other a Focus Group on M2M. All our Focus Groups are open to participation by any interested stakeholder.

 

Every day it seems that we are discovering new and innovative ways to take advantage of the power of ICTs.

 

For example GPS data can determine individuals' real-life travel patterns, guiding transport designers decisions on public transport, or the design of new roads or cycle paths.

 

Biometric data, or to give its more technically correct name, "quantified self data", is going to become of great benefit to city planners.

 

At ITU headquarters in Geneva we recently hosted a display of a project called VilleVivante which used a methodology to capture the traces left by mobile phones as they move across a city with their owners. This is an excellent planning tool providing a unique insight into a population’s movement across an urban environment. The information can be leveraged to determine the best location for public services, such as bus routes and timetables, or even choose the best place for a shop or restaurant.

 

With coordinated thinking and a collegial approach to maximizing the benefits of ICTs, we can ensure that the increased migration to cities can be matched by an increase in the quality of urban environments and ultimately an increase in quality of life for all the citizens of the world’s cities.

 

Smart sustainable development should therefore be right at the top of any country’s development agenda, especially since with each year that passes there is an estimated increase of 67 million new urban dwellers, many of whom are in developing countries.

 

I very much look forward to hearing the discussion and ideas, especially any suggestions on how ITU can contribute more to this important issue.