President Alvi seeks smart cities for better governance

ISLAMABAD-President Dr. Arif Alvi on Monday called for transforming the existing cities into smart cities to improve governance.

Chairing a meeting of Smart Cities Project here, he said the living standard of people can be enhanced by utilising artificial intelligence and database in governance, education and other areas.

While addressing the meeting, the President said that the digital revolution was offering an unprecedented window of opportunity to improve the lives of millions of urban residents and deliver more efficient, sustainable and inclusive urban services to the citizens. 

He emphasised the need to deploy smart technologies in all cities of Pakistan ensuring safety, security and overall better quality of life for all citizens.  The Ministry of Science Technology gave a detailed presentation about the concept and importance of smart cities. 

The ministry highlighted the advantages of smart cities technologies that provided smart solutions to governance, healthcare, infrastructure, crime control, transportation, waste management, cyber security and mobility. 

The ministry informed that a team of experts had been constituted to lead the smart cities initiatives. The meeting was briefed about the key products of national centres which had been established by Higher Education Commission to focus on research and development in the specialised domains.  The products prepared by the National Centres would greatly help in efficiently managing transport, detecting crimes and investigating cybercrimes.

It was also apprised that the Government of Nigeria had lauded the efforts of National 

Radio Telecommunication Corporation (NRTC) for providing state-of-the-art counter-terrorism equipment. 

Article source: https://nation.com.pk/02-Mar-2021/president-alvi-seeks-smart-cities-for-better-governance