How to improve the lives of city dwellers through technology is one of the main objectives of the tenth edition of the Smart City Expo, that this Tuesday has started in the enclosure Gran Via de Fira de Barcelona in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat (Barcelona).
The living room, which returns in face-to-face format After the virtual edition of 2020, this year it expands its thematic scope by hosting the first editions of the shows Tomorrow.Mobility -on new forms of sustainable urban transport- and PUZZLE X -dedicated to advanced materials-, and expects to receive more than 12,000 visitors from more than 110 countries.
During the three days of the show the technological solutions and products from more than 400 exhibiting companies and entities and you can hear the reflections up close 400 speakers, which for the first time are mostly women, has celebrated the director of the Smart City Expo World Congress, Ugo Valentí, in his speech during the official opening of the show.
Valentine has participated in the welcoming ceremony to the fair together with the Vice President of the Generalitat and Minister of Digital Policies and Territory, Jordi Puigneró; the first deputy mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni; the Minister-President of Flanders, Jan Ham; the governor of Antioquia (Colombia), Anibal Gaviria; the executive director of UN Habitat, Maimunah Mohd; and the CEO of EIT Urban Mobility, Maria Tsavachidis.
A very real concept
According to Valentí, in these ten years of Smart City, smart cities have gone from being a concept that only existed in ‘power points’ and that generated debates centered in imagining “utopian cities, and even dystopian”, to be a reality based on improving people’s lives, a purpose that has become more apparent after the health crisis. “We understood that we needed to put citizens at the center of the discussion, because technology is only an instrument, it is important, but it is a means, not an end,” he emphasized. Valentine.
In the same line, Puigneró has stressed that, after the harsh and sad time of the COVID pandemic, one of the objectives of the rulers must be to “bring happiness” to citizens: “Let’s make cities happier by making them smarter“According to the vice president, one of the ways to make the population happy is employment, which is why he has defended the need to generate job opportunities and improve the education and training of citizens to ensure their prosperity.
Likewise, it has vindicated technology, used ethically, to improve the democratic quality and transparency of public administrations and increase public trust.
A benchmark in innovation
For its part, Collboni highlighted that the Smart City fair has consolidated Barcelona “as a benchmark for urban innovation “, and has insisted that the objective of the event is “to debate and share experiences to improve our cities and, above all, the lives of citizens.” The first deputy mayor has emphasized that humanity faces “enormous challenges” in the next decade, which he has defined as “decisive”, and has assured that the leadership of cities is key because it is “where there is a more fertile ground in the world. to sow innovation and collect practical solutions “.
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Continuing with the challenges of the future, the Governor of Antioquia, Aníbal Gaviria, has launched the challenge of aIncrease overall life expectancy, which currently stands at 74.5 years, until 90, as a goal that combines respect for life with the fight against climate change and inequality. “A smart city is one that puts citizens at the center (…), respect, care, defense and honor of life are the essence of a ‘smart city’, I don’t know what is smarter than that “, has asserted Gaviria.
For its part, Ham has defended technology as “a means to an end”, while Mohd has claimed that the digital transformation is inclusive and “leave no one behind.”
Reference-www.elperiodico.com