6 Countries Building Smart Cities vs 10 With Crumbling Infrastructure
- Singapore's Digital Revolution Creates Urban Paradise
Singapore has transformed itself into the world's most advanced smart city, investing over $19 billion in digital infrastructure since 2020. The city-state's Smart Nation initiative has deployed more than 200,000 IoT sensors across the island, monitoring everything from air quality to traffic patterns in real-time.
Their predictive maintenance system has reduced infrastructure failures by 65% compared to traditional methods, while their integrated transport system processes 8.2 million data points daily to optimize traffic flow. What's truly remarkable is how Singapore's elderly population has embraced this technology – 78% of residents over 65 now use digital services for daily tasks.
Africa’s digital dawn: Powering growth through technology
Several nations are harnessing technology to drive economic growth and development
From fintech revolutions to smart cities, here are some of the African countries leveraging innovation to reshape their economies and claim a stake in the global tech frontier. Africa is undergoing a transformative phase, with several nations harnessing technology to drive economic growth and development. This tech-driven evolution is not only reshaping economies but also positioning the continent as a burgeoning hub for innovation.
Govt Services Go Digital With Upcoming MyGOV Malaysia App
Malaysians will soon enjoy faster, easier access to a wide range of public services with the launch of MyGOV Malaysia, a one-stop mobile application that marks a major step in the government’s digital transformation journey.
Set to be launched next month under the GovTech initiative, MyGOV Malaysia will serve as a unified digital gateway, offering citizens, civil servants and businesses 24/7 access to government services, without the need for physical visits or navigating multiple websites.
Commentary: Understanding digitalization’s impact on Eurasia
Once, the Silk Road was a physical network of trade and exchange, ferrying goods across mountains and deserts. Today, it is not just goods that traverse borders, but information moving via Starlink connections, fiber-optic cables and the hum of data centers. This digital Silk Road is connecting places as disparate as the Baltics, Iran, and Kazakhstan – societies shaped by wildly different histories, faiths, and political systems – yet now converging in their embrace of digital transformation.
Africa: Digital Public Infrastructure as a Strategic Imperative
Digital public infrastructure (DPI) is emerging as a core component of socio-economic advancement. For African economies navigating a rapidly digitizing global landscape, the importance of DPI cannot be overstated. It offers the structural backbone to support digital services across sectors, from financial inclusion and e-governance to agriculture, education, health, intra-African trade etc.
Unlike private digital infrastructure, DPI refers to open, interoperable systems that enable a wide range of actors, government, business, civil society to deliver digital services at scale. Foundational elements of DPI include digital identity systems, interoperable payment systems, data exchange layers, and digital authentication protocols. When designed and governed well, DPI enables inclusive access to services, reduces the cost-of-service delivery, increases transparency and boosts economic participation.