Data sharing paramount for HK as a smart city
The most urgent priority in fostering smart city development in Hong Kong is to make public and private data accessible in an open platform that can stimulate innovation, Business Environment Council (BEC) Chairman Richard Lancaster reckoned.
The BEC — established in 1992 by the Hong Kong business sector and comprises 2,000 member companies — hosted the BEC EnviroSeries Conference 2017 on Wednesday to explore strategies in promoting smart and sustainable city development in the SAR.
“Once there is an open platform of sharing government and business data that respects security and privacy , the business sector and the community can make innovations, making use of the connectivity between pieces of data to solve problems in the city,” Lancaster said on the sidelines of the conference.
He said the council will encourage the government to open up data and bring issues relating to smart city development in Hong Kong to the attention of the authorities.
“Besides data sharing, better waste management, smarter use of energy and better traffic flow are also important for Hong Kong as a smart city,” he added.
One example of data sharing is CLP Holdings’ launch of a one-year smart energy program in June this year. By installing smart meters for 26,000 selected residential customers in 14 districts in Kowloon and the New Territories, the pilot scheme can know customers’ energy use and the information can be rolled out to other data sources.
In September, the BEC submitted its views to the government on the consultancy study report on a smart city blueprint for Hong Kong released for consultation. In June, the government released its fourth consultancy report for consultation as the final blueprint will be available in the third quarter next year.
Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor pledged last month the administration will invest HK$700 million to take forward several projects immediately to develop Hong Kong into a smart city.
“Hong Kong is not lagging behind others in smart city development. It’s just that some other places are moving at a faster pace than Hong Kong. With an extremely good infrastructure, Hong Kong has the potential to go faster by using smart technology and data,” Lancaster noted.