2020 Global Readiness Challenge offers ASEAN Award

 The Smart Cities Council is excited to announce a special ASEAN award for its global Readiness Challenge. The "Award for Smart Urban Development" will identify and reward best practices from private sector developers and government entities who are delivering urban development projects (communities, campuses, precincts and districts) that are using technology and data as enablers to accelerate sustainability outcomes. The benefits of participatingThe benefits of participating in the Challenge include: 

• an opportunity to have urban growth throughout ASEAN align with best practice standards for smart and sustainable development – using technology to drive liveability, workability and sustainability
• build opportunities to help stimulate investment in smart infrastructure and data solutions for your project or City, as well as between major international trading partners 
• build a community of practice in smart estates, precincts and communities driving us to continue to improve and exchange best practices
• build the awareness and capacity of cities and developers seeking to embrace best practice smart estate and community development
• be recognised for your leadership, internationally, through the Smart Cities Council and the international Challenge partners.

 The assessment criteriaThe Code for Smart Communities is being used to assess applications. The Code uses six principles and more than 30 metrics to define smart urban development. For the purposes of the application process, the metrics within the Code have been converted into prompting questions, to help the applicant provide written evidence that they are advancing the principles and metrics withint he Code. The six principles within the Code are:  

• Strategic - Smart developments are guided by a strategy that clearly identifies how investments in technology and data will be made to accelerate liveability, productivity and sustainability outcomes. 

• Connected - A smart development has access to best-in-class and ubiquitous connectivity while ensuring the interoperability of connected devices. 

• Aware - Smart developments invest in the collection, integration, analytics and communication of data as a basis for building awareness, insights and optimisation of its services and performance. 

• Responsive - Smart developments support a culture of ongoing positive change afforded through the insights and intelligence gathered from data. 

• Innovative - Smart development builds a culture of creativity, equity and agility to help advance opportunities for innovation. 

• Sustainable - Smart developments use the UN Sustainable Development Goals to guide action and investment in technology and data solutions. 

Each principle has a corresponding set of metrics, which have been converted into prompting questions.  Who can apply?The 2020 ASEAN Smart Urban Development Challenge is open to government entities, and developers within the ASEAN member states: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

An applicant must submit a project for assessment. These terms are defined as the following: 

• A government applicant is any local, state, provincial or national government organisation responsible for delivering services to citizen and businesses.

• A developer applicant is any government or private sector organisation responsible for the planning, design, construction and/or operation of a land development project in either a greenfield, brownfield and/or campus/estate setting.

• A project includes policy related initiatives such as plans, frameworks, funding programs or similar, as well as actual urban development projects. If an urban development project is submitted by the applicant, it must comprise at least four individual buildings (of any type/use), with construction having commenced at the time of applying to the Challenge.

An organisation may submit multiple projects within their application. HOwever only one is required to apply.

Timing of ChallengeSubmissions to the Challenge close on Friday 31 July 2020 at 11:59pm GMT. An independent review panel is being established to facilitate the evaluation process and identification of finalists and winners. Finalists will be announced in September 2020 at the World Congress on Information Technology in Penang, Malaysia. Winners will then be celebrated in November at an award reception in Ha Noi, Vietnam as part of the 2020 ASEAN Summit. Finalists and winners will then have the opportunity to participate in the Council's signature event - Smart Cities Week - hosted in Melbourne (Australia), San Diego (USA) or Washington DC (USA) in 2020/21. PrivacyWe take your privacy seriously. For the purposes of the 2020 ASEAN Smart Urban Development Challenge, the Smart Cities Council references its global privacy policy as the relevant policy for protecting personal data of applicants. Register to applyThis submission process is facilitated through the Council's online Smart Cities Activator platform. Applicants must respond to the Global Readiness Challenge questions presented and then upload evidence of their responses to the Code for Smart Communities. You can register to access the Activator platform and apply to the Challenge here. Challenge supportersThe Smart Cities Council would like to extend its gratitude to our Challenege supporters: Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade), New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, ASEAN-Oceanian Computing Industry Organisation. If your organisation would like to align its brand with a global smart and sustainable cities platform and sponsor the Challenge, please contact: kc.tay@smartcitiescouncil.com