Projects in Taipei and New Taipei cities picked up honors in the 3rd Smart Sustainable City Awards at the general assembly of South Korea-based World e-Governments Organization of Cities and Local Governments (WeGO) June 28 in Ulyanovsk, Russia.
 
Taipei Smart City Living Lab—Government as a Platform claimed gold in the Cooperative City category, while New Taipei City Library 2.0+ earned silver in the Innovative Smart City category. The Taiwan entries were among 76 projects from 56 cities competing for top honors at the awards, which also comprise the categories of Digital Inclusion, e-Government Service, Open City and Sustainable City.
 
Unveiled in 2016 by Taipei City Government’s Department of Information Technology, the living lab initiative aims to foster public-private partnerships in innovative smart city solutions through the creation of a dedicated matchmaking agency—the Taipei Smart City Project Management Office.
 
Since its founding last year, the PMO has hosted 600 meetings and facilitated the launch of some 60 public-private sector smart city initiatives. These include programs to use unmanned aerial vehicles to collect water samples from city reservoirs as well as install around 300 sensors around the city to provide residents with localized, real-time air particulate, humidity and temperature measurements.
 
Similarly praiseworthy is the New Taipei project. Aimed at modernizing services at the New Taipei City Library in Banqiao District, the initiative comprised such efforts as setting up a 24-hour self-checkout system and e-book wall—a touch screen that displays publications, provides advisory services and recommends titles based on readers’ borrowing histories.
 
Established in 2010, WeGO promotes sustainable smart city applications and e-government services in communities around the world. The group’s awards program serves as a platform for collecting best practices and sharing knowledge on development strategies.
 
Taiwan has been recognized as a global leader in smart city solutions. A total of 13 of the nation’s cities and counties have been recognized by Intelligent Community Forum as smart communities, while Taipei and central Taiwan’s Taichung City were named Intelligent Community of the Year by the New York-based nongovernmental organization in 2006 and 2013, respectively. (CPY-E)
 
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