Smart cities development to be given a big push

  The agency next year will set up 13 smart cities in the provinces and will join business partners to showcase smart city solutions.
Passakorn Prathombuts, DEPA’s senior executive vice president, said the agency aims to develop smart cities to cover 77 provinces in the next five years in order to improve the quality of life and boost the country’s competitiveness.
The agency aims to play the role of a facilitator to support both the private and public sectors in helping the development of smart cities. 
The agency, under the City Dara platform, will collect unstructured and structured information such as traffic data, CCTV, WiFi access and transportation to create a mega-data market place of the cities. 
In the next step, the agency plans to develop various solutions for smart city development, including smart environment, smart mobility, smart people, smart governance, smart energy, smart living and smart economy.
“We have a pilot City Data platform in Phuket and aim to transfer knowledge for development of other smart cities in the next step,” said Passakorn.
He added that within the next year, the agency would develop smart cities in 13 provinces such as Chiang Rai, Nan, Krabi, and Mukdahan. As result, the country will see development of smart cities covering 20 provinces by the end of next year. The agency aims to make Thailand the centre of smart city development in Asean by 2032 and a Thai city will be ranked in the world’s top 10 smart cities in 2036.
“The government wants the smart city concept to be driven by local citizens and the private sector. The government will act as facilitator to support the eco-system, basic infrastructure, set the standard and regulations as well as provide grants or seed funding,” said Passakorn.
He added that some of the technologies that drive a smart city are Internet of Things, big data, 5G network and artificial intelligence.
Richard Li, general manager of Messe Frankfurt (Shanghai), said in order to develop smart cities in Thailand, the company has joined hands with DEPA to set up the Thailand Building Fair, Thailand Lighting Fair and Secutech Thailand.
The three events, held in conjunction with Digital Thailand Big Bang, will offer an overview of smart city development. Intrinsic elements such as smart and energy-efficient lighting and building as well as smart security and safety systems will all be present under one roof during the show and will offer a unique insight into how smart city development can create sustainable and modern environments for every citizen in Asean to live, work and thrive.
The events will be held from October 28-31. 
Messe Frankfurt’s brand shows for the smart city industry Secutech Thailand, Thailand Lighting Fair and Thailand Building Fair will showcase innovative smart city solutions, while the focus on digital infrastructure will be at the DEPA-organised Digital Thailand Big Bang show. The four shows will embrace this new theme to serve as a one-stop shop for the latest smart city technology and solutions.
Nuttapon Nimmanphatcharin, president of DEPA, said the collaboration would mark a noteworthy new milestone for Smart City Solutions Week in Thailand. The adoption of the smart city concept is an undeniable trend in Asean cities. The agency hoped that industry players would take advantage of these integrated solutions and build a networking platform across the smart city ecosystem.