Phnom Penh Moving Toward Being Smart City, Say Experts

• 27 June 2019
• Local News
• 2709 Views

While the term ‘smart city’ became trendy in response to an increasingly crowded world, experts from across different fields sat down on 25 June to assess how Phnom Penh has adopted the concept and discuss possible future plans.

Under the theme ‘Smart Cities: The Future of Urban Development’, the event was co-organised by international real estate agent CBRE Cambodia, investment and tax advisory firm DFDL and construction firm Archetype.

While acknowledging that the city is developing fast and becoming more crowded, panelist Guillaume Massin, partner and managing director of DFDL Cambodia, believes that Phnom Penh is transitioning towards being a smart city.

As the term ‘smart city’ can have many definitions, one idea regards adopting technology that will help better connect people living in this rapidly urbanising city in a more sustainable way.

“Phnom Penh is already changing to adapt to this concept [smart city] because when you see new buildings, new airports, it’s already in line with some of the smart city principles,” Mr. Massin said. From the point of view of Mr Michel Cassagnes, Managing Director of Archetype, hotels are the key drivers to making the Cambodia’s ‘Smart and Sustainable’ concept work faster and better, given that the consumption of energy and water is highest among hotels operators in general.

Phnom Penh City Hall’s administration director Mr Seng Vannak said that the government is currently investing a lot in order to transform Phnom Penh into a smart and sustainable city.

According to Mr Seng, the start of installing infrastructure such as smart lighting, upgrading parking spaces, clearing public space for sidewalks, planting trees and landscaping plans, and providing public buses with Wi-Fi in Phnom Penh, are signs toward achieving the smart city goal.

“Our plan is to try to make our city become a city that is modern and smart but sustainable,” he said, while emphasising that in order to do so, collaboration and gaining understanding from all stakeholders, including citizens, is very important.

Phnom Penh is among the three cities being selected in Cambodia as part of the ASEAN Smart Cities Network (ASCN) that will benefit from Japanese investment into the creation of a sustainable urban development.

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