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The Line in northwestern Saudi Arabia is perhaps the most impressive (spectacular) of the smart city projects either planned or underway in the world today. Part of the NEOM of the world's largest and most controversial architectural project, The Line is straight out of a science fiction movie - literally. Imagine a 170-kilometre city in a straight line, consisting of two linear 500-metre-high skyscrapers 200 metres apart. This is a project with a reported cost of $1 trillion, which promises to deliver the ultimate smart city, the ultimate green city. A platform for communication and cooperation that is called to address the major challenges of our living: those of the circular economy, climate change, energy transition, urban population growth and urban mobility. How do we build the cities of tomorrow? What is everyone's role in achieving this common and complex goal?
Technology is called upon to provide solutions. Smart cities are identified with the digital progress of nations, and usually intertwined with economic growth. They define a new era of urban living, promising not only efficiency, but sustainability and resilience for residents, current and future.
The implementation of smart city solutions incorporates and leverages advanced technologies, and if I had to mention some of them, I would choose the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence and Space Technologies, an area in which Cyprus has made significant strides.
The implementation of smart city solutions incorporates and leverages advanced technologies, and if I had to mention some of them, I would choose the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence and Space Technologies, an area in which Cyprus has made significant strides. The technological design of smart cities is essentially based on our ability to collect and analyse data in real time in order to identify and understand patterns and trends, leading to accurate and timely decision making and automation.
Smart city solutions, then, are not always just about impressive solutions. The ability, for example, to be able to know whether in an area that is at risk of a natural disaster, all residents have evacuated is extremely important. As examples alone, I mention that the implementation of smart city technologies: can improve transport efficiency, help save energy and water through automatic regulation of consumption, optimise waste management by anticipating collection and recycling needs, and enhance citizen safety - topics that I am sure will be discussed during the course of today.
In addition, satellite systems can provide information on the a What I think we have generally not achieved so far as a country is to create that technological background, that infrastructure, on which we can - not just as a government or public sector - but as a business community, build scalable ecosystems and solutions.
This is what we aim to achieve with the Smart Cyprus project, which is based on the philosophy, or if you like the Platform economy. Through the Smart Cyprus project, we are designing a unified, holistic approach to implement smart city solutions across Cyprus, offering a technological infrastructure, a platform, to which smart city solutions will be added in an evolutionary way.
This is a major modernisation project that aims to coordinate the ongoing smart cities initiatives in various municipalities, and to implement - in a first stage - three key common solutions: smart parking, smart lighting and smart waste collection management. The project includes the implementation of a mobile application, through which citizens will be able to communicate with the municipalities and receive the services that will be added as they evolve. We therefore favour individual solutions by each municipality but within an overall design and not in silos that also fragment the citizen's experience.
The project is funded with €35 million from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, and is in the tendering phase with a deadline of mid-May. The project envisages the installation (and associated connection to the central smart city platform) of at least 120,000 smart sensors, and has a completion date of 2026.
I referred earlier to infrastructure and conditions - an essential and indispensable such condition for any smart city is high-speed connectivity. Cyprus was the first country in Europe to achieve 100% population coverage with 5th generation (5G) networks and remains one of only three European countries that have achieved this. A few days ago, we announced, in cooperation with Cyta, a large-scale and significant project to cover with fibre optic networks all rural and remote areas of free Cyprus, thus ensuring equal access and the possibility of active participation of all citizens without exception in the digital economy. We aim to complete the project by the end of 2025, when Cyprus will probably become the first country to achieve 100% population coverage across the entire spectrum of high-speed, mobile and fixed connectivity. It is worth noting that Cyprus already has high-level research institutions as well as 7 Centres of Excellence, some of which are active in fields related to smart transport and water management, geosurveying, digital twin technologies, as well as air pollution measurement and climate change monitoring.
Dear Friends,
The Smart Cities Action Plan and the investment in innovative technologies are part of the broader context of upgrading the country's digital infrastructure and the technological modernisation of the state, in a way that substantially improves every interaction and transaction of the citizen with the public. In this direction, we are also building the Digital Citizen, a milestone project for the Ministry of State on which we will gradually and evolutionarily implement the entire range of digital services of the state, adding e-signature and digital assistant solutions using genetic artificial intelligence. At the same time, we are upgrading the Department of Urban Planning's Hippodamus system, through which the new Provincial Authorities will be able to manage applications for planning and building permits.
You realize that our approach does not match the ambition of The Line of Saudi Arabia, but it is a holistic approach, with substantial actions that make up a demanding but effective mosaic of modernization, and most importantly: with the citizen at the center. In addition, they contribute significantly to our efforts to make our country an attractive destination for visitors, digital nomads, workers, businesses and foreign investors. Modern, and digitally ready cities are an essential component of this goal.
Thank you.
(MK)
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