Jakarta. A smart city should support comfortable housing, green environment, orderly traffic and healthy people. Vice President Jusuf Kalla stated this at the Granting of Indonesian Smart Cities (IKCI) 2015 at Shangri La Hotel, Jakarta today.
“To realise a smart city, aside from the highly use of technology, its mayor should be smart too as he or she would direct and give an example to the people,” the Vice President said.
At the event, Surabaya was granted as the Indonesian Smart City 2015 after winning two categories, which are a smart city with population of more than one million people and a smart city in the environment field. Other than Surabaya, Magelang won the category of a smart city with population of less than 200 thousand people and a smart city in the economic field. In the category of a smart city in social field, came Madiun as the winner, while Yogyakarta was determined as a smart city with population of between 200 thousand and one million people.
A smart city, Mr Kalla explained, is a city that could manage its budget effectively. “In a smart city, the budget allocated for employees’ salary does not exceed the budget allocated for development projects,” he said.
Another requirement for a smart city, he added, is that it has detailed regulation and standards and they are strictly enforced.
Regarding the use of technology supporting a smart city, Mr Kalla appreciated the motor taxi mobile app Gojek operating in Jakarta and some other cities. “It is a smart breakthrough to beat traffic congestion,” he said.
On health sector, the Vice President wanted to change what people have in mind about being healthy. According to him, the paradigm saying government would take care of you whatever your illness is should be shifted to that government will first of all keep you healthy. “One of the ways is by keeping the environment clean and providing green areas,” he said.
At the end of his speech, the Vice President asked the committee to add the opposite categories such as the dirtiest city or the slow city for the coming year so that mayors and governors would be motivated.
The granting of the Indonesian Smart City 2015 was held jointly by Daily Kompas, the state-owned gas firm PT Perusahaan Gas Negara (PGN) and Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB). The committee assessed over 98 cities, 93 of which are autonomous cities.
Public Works and Public Housing Minister Basuki Hadimuljono, Communication and Information Minister Rudiantara, PGN Strategic Business Director Wahid Sutopo, Daily Kompas Editor-in-Chief Budiman Tanuredjo and ITB Rector Kadarsyah Suryadi also attended the event.