Biju Kadapurath: “Citizens should be at the centre of Smart Cities”

The Associate Director of PwC India, also the firm’s international expert on smart cities and technology enablement, was in Mauritius recently to make recommendations to the local authorities. He discusses the challenges and impact of such a development in the interview below.

BUSINESSMAG. How would you define a smart city?

A smart city could be considered as a geographical area with clear boundaries where the sectoral service delivery leverages technology and existing investments in ICT to ensure current urban infrastructure can enrich its residents’ standards of living, provide positive investment climate for businesses and equip governments to maximise resource utilisation, provide transparency and are financially sustainable. The geographical areas referenced can be a commercial business district, a residential district, cities, towns, municipalities, a combination or subset of any of these areas.

BUSINESSMAG. What has caused the boom of this concept in recent years?

Globally, a large section of the population today lives in urban areas as compared to rural areas and the trend to urban migration is expected to accelerate. Presently, over 50% of the global population lives in urban areas, up from nearly 30% in 1950. Per a recent PwC Report, urban clusters occupy 0.5% of the world’s surface, but consume 75% of its resources. Every week, nearly 1.5 million people join the urban population, mostly through migration and childbirth. People mainly migrate to urban areas for better employment opportunities, healthcare and educational facilities as well as improved liveability and higher standard of living.

Inevitably, this rapid expansion and urbanisation is putting a strain on the infrastructure, environment and social fabric of cities. With the burgeoning population, the citizen’s demand for basic amenities such as water, energy, infrastructure and clean environment is increasing correspondingly.

By 2050, urbanisation and population explosion are forecasted to add 2.5 billion people to the overall global population, with approximately 90% of the rise taking place in Africa and Asia.

BUSINESSMAG. What is the biggest challenge for the development of smart cities in Mauritius?

I see three potential challenges with the development of smart cities here. Firstly, human resource availability and capacity development needed to build and sustain these cities. Secondly, defining a unique economic characteristic to each city being proposed in order to attract the right set of investors and talent. And thirdly, considering the size and population of the country, creation and adoption of interoperable standards across cities so that a common smart nation goal can be realised.

BUSINESSMAG. What is the most important factor to take into consideration when building a smart city?

Citizens should be at the centre and focus must be on ensuring the investments improve their quality of life. There must be government commitment to the cause as transforming brownfield and developing new cities are both complex and time consuming.

BUSINESSMAG. What do these developments represent in terms of economic spending?

The spending needed to build or transform is compounded by inclusion of real estate and infrastructure costs which are significant when it comes to development. Definition of smart cities must be clear when a city embarks on the journey. The cost of technology needed to build and sustain the transformation is what must be considered as the cost of the “smart” portion of the city development as other factors are in any case needed for a city to be considered a liveable city.

BUSINESSMAG. How justified is the government’s ambition to develop smart cities when the current city, Port Louis, and the other towns are not fully developed?

The agenda for smart cities should include both brownfield as well as new cities, which I believe is what the government here is considering. The initiative is very positive and the new leadership seems extremely committed. Meetings with the Honourable Minister of IT, Permanent Secretary of IT, Board of Investments and potential investors have all shown the commitment into the country’s development through smart cities, which will ensure overall success for the smart journey that Mauritius intends to pursue.