Smart-city vision and strategy in Hong Kong

Abstract

In response to emerging urban challenges, Hong Kong has come up with its recent smart-city vision as a potential solution. The Asian global city is late in joining a new round of smart-city initiatives, despite its earlier techno-centric, piecemeal ICT application to urban development. The Hong Kong Smart City Blueprint announced in late 2017, however, signals the city’s entrance into a new stage, where well-concerted strategic actions for ICT-based urban-platform upgrades ultimately aim to enhance urban sustainability and liveability. The scope of the proposed initiatives is extensive, covering six application domains, namely Smart Mobility, Environment, People, Economy, Government and Living. In certain respects, the proposed vision and strategies may look overly ambitious and will likely meet with various challenges in implementation. With a strong will, however, the Hong Kong Government plans to keep improving the feasibility and tackling challenges through pilot-based trial and error.