Envoy: Iran Progressing in Developing Smart Cities

In a Conference on Smart Cities held at National University of Political Studies and Public Administration in the Romania capital city of Bucharest, Abutalebi elaborated on the situation of smart cities in Iran, and added that paying attention to cyber economy and national information network can be effective in developing virtual economy infrastructures and supporting internet markets.

He highlighted availability of Internet as a tool for economic growth and employment, but there is still a long path to have access to sustainable network.

The envoy added that developing relations through cyberspace has served to save time and space.

Abutalebi said that lack of security in cyberspace has imposed billions of dollars damages annually on economy of countries.

He reiterated the fact that launching national information network, prepares necessary infrastructures and equipment for managing national communications network.

The Smart Cities Conference is an initiative dedicated to open, inclusive, formal and informal dialogue on Smart Cities issues among all interested stakeholders.

It brings together representatives of governments, intergovernmental organizations, private sector, technical community, academia and civil society, with the aim to facilitate multi stakeholders’ discussions, exchanges and collaboration on Smart Cities related issues.

Earlier, City of Tehran and Smart Tehran Program (STP) have been selected as one of the six nominees for the global City Award.

According to World Smart City Awards, STP together with Bristol, Curitiba, Montevideo, Seoul and Stockholm are among the six nominees for the City Award.

The World Smart City Awards (WSCA) is one of the most important activities of this global event, where pioneering city strategies, projects and ideas are recognized based on innovation, relevance, impact, scope of implementation, citizen engagement, co-creation, inclusivity, feasibility, replicability, multi-stakeholder collaboration, among other aspects, according to its official website.

The City Award considers a global strategy developed by a city that combines projects, initiatives, and policy implementations in two or more urban fields. These fields are described in the topics section.

 It rewards a city for its innovation, collaboration and sustainability strategies. Evaluation will include the proven impact to date.

Last December, the 2nd edition of Smart Tehran Congress was held at Tehran Milad Tower with Iranian Minister of Communications and Information Technology Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi, Tehran Mayor Pirouz Hanachi, Chairman of Tehran City Council Mohsen Hashemi among the participants.

During the two-day conference, 10 different workshops were held on topics such as smart transportation, urban economy, and health, among others.

Smart Tehran is a program to transform Tehran into a more sustainable and livable smart city for all citizens, businesses, start-ups, public and private sectors. Tehran Municipality’s Information and Communications Technology Organization (TMICTO) launched Smart Tehran program in order to improve public knowledge about “smartness” as a whole and smart city services in particular and also, to localize and facilitate implementing smart city projects.