JAKARTA: Three Indonesian cities will be included in the ASEAN Smart Cities Network (ASCN) as the Southeast Asian bloc moves ahead with its regional integration.
The cities are the national capital Jakarta, the provincial capital of South Sulawesi province, Makassar, and Banyuwangi on Java island. The 26-city network is Singapore’s flagship initiative for its ASEAN chairmanship this year.
Singapore asked each member state to propose three cities, including each nation’s capital, to be included in the ASCN, Indonesian Foreign Ministry official Nur Rokhmah Hidayah told Arab News.
The tiny sultanate of Brunei is an exception, with only its capital Bandar Seri Begawan included in the list.
Malaysia is also an exception, with four cities — Kuala Lumpur, Kuching, Kota Kinabalu and Johor Bahru — on the list.
Almost a third of Banyuwangi is forestland, and the city has a population of 1.6 million. Its inclusion is a big leap for the city, said Yayat Supriyatna, an urban planning expert at Universitas Trisakti in Jakarta. “It shows that to be a smart city, it doesn’t have to be a metropolis,” he added.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo said the ASCN will help tackle increasingly complex urban challenges in ASEAN cities.
The initiative “is very good,” and will “develop inclusive and sustainable” cities “based on innovation and technology,” he added.
ASEAN leaders said in a statement on Saturday that they agreed to establish the network to “synergize development efforts, share best practices, and catalyze more opportunities for growth, innovation, capacity-building and sustainable development.”
They added: “We further agreed that the ASCN would promote an inclusive approach and take into account city-specific needs, potential, local and cultural uniqueness, as well as level of development.”
