KUALA LUMPUR: Kuala Lumpur has made significant progress, climbing 16 spots to secure the 73rd position out of 142 smart cities worldwide in the latest 2024 Smart City Index (SCI) by the Institute for Management Development's (IMD) Smart City Observatory.
This marks a notable improvement from its 89th ranking last year.
Zurich retained its top position for the fifth consecutive edition of the SCI, with Oslo following in second place and Canberra in third. Geneva secured the fourth spot, while Singapore claimed the fifth position, as revealed by the study's findings.
The report highlighted Kuala Lumpur's commendable performance in specific areas such as online scheduling and ticket sales, which have enhanced the usability of public transportation.
Businesses in Kuala Lumpur are also creating new jobs with easier access to online job listings.
The most pressing concerns, as identified in the report, include affordable housing, road congestion, and issues related to corruption/transparency.
Meanwhile, Zurich, Oslo, Singapore, Abu Dhabi, Beijing, and Seoul were deemed "super champions," while another group of six cities likely to join the super champions in the near future are Sydney, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tallinn, and Riyadh.
This is because they have either stayed in the same position or edged up the ranking after starting from lower positions (21st to 40th).
Bruno Lanvin, president of the Smart City Observatory, said cities must design and adopt strategies that can resist the test of a future plagued with growing uncertainties.
He said that health-related concerns remain high while climate-related ones grow even larger, a mix complicated by renewed international tensions.
Trust and good governance are growing in importance, and the significance of Al in city design and management is set to increase, he said.
"Counterintuitive as it may sound, Al can help cities become more human-centric," Lanvin said in a statement
According to the report, US cities such as Washington DC, Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York City, and Chicago have been losing ground, as have Canada's Ottawa and Montreal.
For the first time since the index's creation in 2019, there are no North American cities in the Top 20.
"Last year, most US cities rose in the index, but this year they have fallen. Some explanation can be found in Biden's Build Back Better, which had a positive effect. In contrast, this year's elections are on the horizon, making people more critical of areas that need improvement," Lanvin said.
Now that the index has five years of data, the 2024 edition allows for the calculation of moving averages, such as the position of a city, on average. These results will help policymakers anticipate what might happen in the next three-year wave.