New Westminster is setting its sights on being one of the smartest cities in the world.
The Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) recently announced that the City of New Westminster has been recognized as one of the world’s Smart21 Communities of 2017. Out of a list of nearly 400 communities, New Westminster is one of 21 communities that will move on and contend for the designation of an Intelligent Community Top7.
“I think this is actually a really incredible achievement of the City of New Westminster,” said Mayor Jonathan Cote. “Cities all around the world have applied to be in this process, and I think for a smaller city of our size to be able to compete on the world stage, in terms of the efforts to becoming a smart city is important and is reflective of the work we have been putting in for years to develop the fibre network and try and create the open access network, both for residents and businesses, but also trying to be a community that’s open to innovation and making sure that our economic development plans are really recognizing the important role that technology is going to play.”
Cote said he’s extremely proud of the work already done by the City of New Westminster on its quest to be an intelligent city and to make it into the top 21.
“I think even in terms of our scores and how we are rated through this process, we are only going to improve as we develop our fibre network and our policies that surround that,” he said. “We’ve made a good accomplishment to make it into the top 21, but I still think we have a lot more work to do if we really want to be trying to get very high in that positon and potentially even the top position.”
The Intelligent Community Forum studies and promotes the best practices of the world's Intelligent Communities as they adapt to the new demands and seize opportunities presented by information and communications technology. Evaluation of Intelligent Community Forum Awards program nominations is based on six “Intelligent Community indicators”, which consider a community's competitiveness in the areas of broadband, knowledge workforce, innovation, digital equality, sustainability and advocacy.
“The City of New Westminster has been working on the Intelligent City initiative for several years as a key economic driver for our city; it’s very rewarding to see that our efforts are paying off,” said Coun. Bill Harper, co-chair of the Intelligent City advisory committee. “Being named as a Smart21 Community reinforces our desire to compete successfully in today’s interconnected world and inspires us to continue to pursue innovative ideas for our city.”
