What is Smart Economy?
The concept of Smart Economy captures several aspects within a city (human capital, social, urbanism, infrastructure, IT, etc.). Thus, Smart Economy represents the intersection of the economy and smart cities. It is important to understand its main components: how Smart Cities technologies change urban commerce, Smart City as an economic engine and the economy behind smart cities.
Smart Economy
• Innovation (EI1)
• Entrepreneurship (EI2)
• Local and global interconnection (EI3)
• Productivity (EI4)
• Flexibility and employment (EI5)
The current context
The phenomenon of digitalization and the continuous emergence of different innovative technologies are changing the demands of many fields, especially in the labor market and in the economy. Therefore smart cities must develop strategies to address the new jobs (jobs of the future) that will be the basis of industry 4.0 and the smart economy. The use of new technologies will also reduce government procedures, providing transparency and improved business experience.
The path to the possible
The visionaries have long thought of the smart cities of the future, where both residents and visitors thrive. These modern urban environments are regulated and work perfectly, with advanced multimodal transit systems, self-sustained energy networks, clean and secure neighborhoods, integrated services and significant facilities for citizens. Many cities are starting to build such communities. Amazing progress has been made in recent years, but cities and communities continue to face complex challenges, such as infrastructure maintenance, population growth and migration, and sustainability and sustainability issues. A holistic vision helps to integrate a complex model of Smart City, from schools and businesses to transportation and energy. Working together, new ideas and technologies can be created and implemented to improve the lives of citizens and to create a sustainable future.
The main components
Urban trade is changing!
Smart Economy aims to digitize the economy, from payments, phone payments, electronic wallets, to the use of NFC or QR technologies. The purpose of a smart economy is to finally get to digitize the entire consumer experience and possibly the exclusive use of electronic money (cryptocurrency).
Smart communities are beginning to outline sustainable economic strategies, a good example is South Korea, which has in its subway a virtual supermarket that uses QR technology with which the customer manages to purchase and deliver the desired goods home.
Existing and future technologies are changing customer interactions with goods and influencing urban commerce.
Digital infrastructure – economic engine
Smart City implementation requires different types of infrastructure, among the main infrastructures are the digital one. Transport infrastructure is an economic engine in any country, but in the current context, digital infrastructure is beginning to generate the same effects as transport, with respect to the economy. Both the private and public sectors are consuming data, the smart economy promotes the smart use of this data.
Broadband Internet is very important in a community. It can have a large coverage area and the highest speeds. The wider this band (the greater number of fiber optic cables), the larger the population has access to it and the average download speed is higher.
There are numerous studies that have linked investments in broadband infrastructure with a growth of the economy (growth of the country’s GDP, jobs etc.) and even with the development of knowledge societies (companies that have universal access to information and knowledge, respect for cultural and linguistic diversity, quality education, freedom of expression, etc.)
At the international level, broadband penetration is the main problem of the countries, the major factor being the lack of competitive incentives on the monopolistic market of Internet service providers (ISPs). Such situations make it difficult to invest in digital infrastructure.
There are companies that invest in such infrastructure, such as Google, in order to put pressure on ISP market leaders to invest in network capacity, thus encouraging competition and enhancing transparency in the real costs of building ICT infrastructure.
