The community is experiencing tremendous growth and has become a destination for IT businesses. Its vision is to become a complete knowledge hub by 2020, building on its current broadband network and, realizing the gap that remains in the community, to offer access to every citizen through a technology organization managed by the State government.

Population: 6,100,000

Website: www.ghmc.gov.in

Smart21 2008

Bangalore, a city of six million in the southern Indian state of Karnartaka, is one of the world’s top centers of technology development. About 80,000 people work in its high-tech industry, many of them graduates of one of Bangalore’s more than 100 research universities or technical colleges. Hundreds of international companies — including IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Oracle, Sun Microsystems and American Express — have set up software development centers or contracted with local firms in order to take advantage of Bangalore’s supply of highly-trained, English-speaking computer graduates. Because of the vast gap in per-capita income between the West and India, salaries are high by Indian standards but are only a fraction of those commanded by programmers in the US or Europe. Just as important is the 24-hour working day that is created by satellite and fiber broadband circuits linking India and the US on opposite sides of the globe, with software engineers trading projects back and forth as their working days begin and end.

Garden City

Since the mid-1990s, the result has been the creation of a fast-growing and affluent community of professionals in what locals call India’s “Garden City.” The achievement is particularly impressive when considered in context. India is a vast nation of one billion with per-capita gross domestic product of US$458 (2000), an estimated 44% of the population living in poverty (mid-90s), and only 30 residential phone lines per 1,000 people (2000). Bangalore’s success is due to the effective economic development marketing of a government agency, Software Technology Parks of India; to the grassroots efforts of Indian software engineers and entrepreneurs in the US, who have opened eyes to the potential of their native country; and to a local commitment to education and training that has made Bangalore the home of nearly 20% of Indian’s total institutions of higher education.

Population: 6,000,000

Website: bangaloreurban.nic.in

Top7 2002

Founded in 1404, Tianjin is the biggest seaport in northern China, which functions as neighboring Beijing's gateway to the sea. With a strong industrial base, the city saw GDP growth of nearly 16% from 2003 to 2004, when its total output was worth US$36.3 billion. Now Tianjin and the national government have combined the port, industrial and free trade zones into the Tianjin Binhai New Area (TBNA), with the goal of creating one of the world’s most advanced urban centers at an estimated cost of US$146bn. The core strategy relies on overlaying ICT on the government, business and residential life of TBNA, which is already home to 27% of China’s scientific and technology talent. A fiber backbone network extends 32,000 km and broadband now reaches 300,000 households or 50% of all Internet users. Large-scale investments have gone into e-government, electronic port logistics, public safety systems and ICT automation for business. But it is in connecting young people to careers that TBNA may have set an example for the world. A multi-level program equips students with an Employment Services Card, which records their participation in career guidance and internships. It qualifies them for entrepreneurship training, in which more than 1,000 business people train 3,000 students per year, as well as subsidies and loans for start-ups. The government even pays 60% of minimum wage for up to 12 months to subsidize the hiring of young people by local companies.

Population: 2,020,000

Website: en.investteda.org

Smart21 2010

Founded in 1404, Tianjin is the biggest coastal city and largest seaport in northern China. It functions as neighboring Beijing's gateway to the sea, and is one of four Chinese municipalities under the direct jurisdiction of the central government. This city of 11 million has a strong industrial base in automobiles, pharmaceuticals, metallurgy, petrochemicals and such new fields as environmental services, and saw GDP growth of nearly 16% from 2003 to 2004, when its total output was worth US$36.3 billion. The city added 214,500 new jobs in 2004, 18% more than the prior year and saw per-capita income rise 14%.

The municipal government has nonetheless set its sights on building equally powerful information technology and service industries, and has eagerly embraced broadband and IT as means to make government more efficient and responsive, and business more productive. Northern China has been late to the Internet and broadband revolution, and there is a clear sense of urgency in Tianjin's efforts to catch up. Tianjin was among the Top Seven in 2005, and for the second year in a row, ICF recognizes the city for its aggressive application of the principles of Intelligent Community development in the unique political and economic environment of China.

From 20,000 to 2.7 Million in Two Years

Tianjin's Intelligent Community initiative is focused on broadband deployment for citizens, business and government; on e-government applications to make government more responsive and efficient; and on development of new high-tech industrial zones. The goals in its current five-year plan are to provide broadband access in 100% of the 12 km2 (4.6 sq. mile) city, have 80% of households own a PC and 55% of residents become Internet users, and have total broadband penetration reach 60%. Collaborating with telecom carriers, cable TV companies and equipment manufacturers, the city has deployed 20,000 km (12,500 miles) of optical fiber in multiple interconnected networks. The city had 2.7 million Internet subscribers at the end of 2004, up 35% from the prior year. (At the end of 2002, only 20,000 people in all of Tianjin used the Internet.) Broadband subscribers totaled 600,000 or 5% of the total population. A newly completed telecommunications hub in Tianjin provides switching and control for networks that connect the nine provinces of northern China.

Though part of the Beijing metroplex, Tianjin contains large rural areas where farming is the predominant industry. A “village to village” program has, with help from satellites, connected nearly 4,000 villages to the Internet and has helped to transform rural life. One small company, Jinmao Co. Ltd. In Wang Zhuang Village, was founded with the equivalent of US$62 in 1984 to manufacture manual agricultural tools. After setting up a Web site in 1996, the company began receiving orders from throughout China and expanded its products to include painting, cleaning, gardening and other tools. Their products are now available in five of the six biggest furniture chains in China, and the company's sales have reached US$18 million.

Online Government, Health Care and Customs

Tianjin's e-government programs have focused in increasing efficiency, improving connectedness and centralizing information on residents. To date, the city has implemented 600 e-government applications, including public finance, taxation, city planning, housing, commerce, education and justice. Proposed government policies are posted to the Web so that citizens can offer comments before the policy is implemented. Over 250 departments use the network for internal management. The broadband network also links the city’s 210 hospitals and clinics, and an online payment system settles almost all healthcare charges. A Distance Tax Collection System allows taxpayers to check their accounts and make payments online, while a Port Information System expedites customs clearances for ships' cargos in Tianjin's port. Cash transactions are gradually being replaced by three network-access cards – bank, bus and social security – that residents use to manage their financial and transportation needs.

In China, a Resident Registration System controls internal travel and residency. Tianjin recently introduced a second-generation system designed to reduce the inconvenience to residents of re-registering at district offices whenever they change housing. The former manual process, requiring visits to multiple offices, has been reduced by data networking to a single visit.

50% of Total Exports from Technology Sector

The city's latest project is the Digital City industrial park, designed as a home for China's fast-growing software, electronics, biotech and new-energy industries. Now under construction on 10 km2 (3.8 sq. miles) of land, the new park will become home to a sector that saw a 32% increase in total revenues from 2003 to 2005 and which now produces 50% of the city's exports.

The pace of Tianjin's transformation is set by many factors, from the sheer scale of effort required to have an impact on its large, urban-rural population to the willingness of the central government in Beijing to embrace change. Measured by how far it has come in a short time, Tianjin is a notable success. Measured against the scale of its ambitions, the city still has far to go.

Population: 11,000,000

Labor Force: 5,500,000

Website: www.tj.gov.cn

Smart21 2006

Top7 2005 | 2006

Shanghai has been a major port at the mouth of the Yangtze River since it was opened to foreign trade in 1842. By the 1930s, it was an Asian hub of finance and commerce. But its current path was set in the 1990s, when the reforms of Deng Xiaoping made it one of China’s four “direct cities,” operating free from provincial rule, and liberated its private-sector economy. The non-state sector now generates 42% of the city’s GDP, which has grown at double-digit rates since 1992. Today, Shanghai is one of the world’s largest cities by population and the second busiest port in the world. Already home to over 30 major industrial parks, it is engaged in a development boom of historic proportions. The infrastructure includes broadband via wireless, copper and optical fiber. The Shanghai Medical University is a pioneer in telehealth in China and supports remote consultation and education in more than 20 provinces. More than 30 large multinationals have located wholly-owned R&D centers there because of the city’s rich knowledge assets, competitive market, existing IT cluster. The centers are producing new spin-off companies, new university-business research ventures and an overall increase in the skill levels of Chinese engineers and researchers.

Population: 19,000,000

Website: www.shanghai.gov.cn

Smart21 2011

Political reforms beginning in the 1990s unleashed the economic potential of Shanghai, one of China’s most important seaports, and helped create the megacity of today with its population of over 23 million. Jiading is the northernmost of 17 districts of Shanghai and home to the city’s Grand Prix racetrack. But the district has begun a different kind of race: to create a new satellite community of one million people that will set a standard in China for quality of life. Moving at the high speed of development in the Middle Kingdom, Jiading New City is already home to the regional headquarters of major Chinese companies, schools, hospitals, hotels, rail and bus lines as well as housing. A ubiquitous wireless network is being deployed to provide broadband. Yet for all its advanced infrastructure, Jiading New City encompasses one hundred parks, a network of lakes and rivers and a forest belt that takes up 40% of its land. Already called China’s “most livable city,” Jiading New District aims to become an important destination where the dynamism of China connects to the global economy.

Population: 538,000

Website: english.jiading.gov.cn

Smart21 2013

A satellite city of Shanghai known as an automative cluster, Jia Ding seeks to build quality of life and attract high-tech companies through a fiber-to-the-building network, science & technology investment funds, and advanced e-government programs.

Population: 1,157,381

Website: english.jiading.gov.cn

Smart21 2007

Long one of the most competitive economies in the world, Hong Kong seeks to maintain its edge with an IT transformation plan to make government more efficient, development of digital industry clusters such as Cyberport, and investments in intelligent transport and immigration to maintain its lead as a crossroads for the global economy.

Population: 6,965,000

Website: www.gov.hk

Smart21 2007

Located on the Yangtze River in Sichuan province, Chongqing was once known for its isolation behind high mountains, which led Chiang Kai-shek to make it his wartime capital. In 1983, Chongqing became the country’s first inland port open to foreign trade and was authorized to experiment with liberal economic policies. With the construction of the Three Gorges Dam nearby, Chongqing was named a “direct city” in 1997, joining Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai in independence from provincial government. Under its aggressive and popular Mayor Bo ilai, the city has grown explosively since then. In 1998, its GDP was $21 billion; by 2009, it had grown fourfold to $86bn, twice the growth rate of China as a whole. Fully 90% of the industrial goods manufactured there are sold in China. The city is investing heavily in its future by expanding rail lines, highways, the airport and digital infrastructure. Hewlett-Packard has a call center in Chongqing and plans a laptop factory. Chongqing attracts more direct foreign investment than any other city in central or western China - $2.7 billion in 2008 alone.

Population: 32,000,000

Website: www.cq.gov.cn

Smart21 2011

Every week, the city of Whittlesea gains 175 new residents, which adds up to 2,500 new households per year and makes it one of Australia’s fastest growing municipalities. While residential construction is booming, however, job creation is not. Whittlesea is a large urban/suburban/rural district on the northern fringe of the city of Melbourne, where two-thirds of Whittlesea residents earn their living. The city’s business community consists of a declining manufacturing sector made up for by growing construction, retail and services sectors. Nearly 80% of its businesses are small. Only 10% are exporters and only 25% of these provide online products and services.

A Foundation of Conduit

City Council began laying the foundation for a different economy in 2001, when it started requiring all greenfield developments to install fiber-ready conduit and transfer ownership to Council. Within a few years, this asset made it possible for the city to able to attract fiber network investment into housing and mixed-use developments. The large and growing conduit system also attracted Australia’s National Broadband Network to make Whittlesea a deployment site. About 40% of the city now has access to fiber and 70% of premises are expected to receive 100 Mbps service by 2015. User adoption is among the fastest in the nation.

Whittlesea is already proving attractive to some large-scale industrial developments spilling over from Melbourne, including a wholesale fruit, vegetable and flower market, as well as food processing, logistics and warehousing. While welcoming this growth, Whittlesea has focused on bringing its existing small business community into the digital age. An ICT scorecard project has evaluated ICT adoption at 1,600 businesses. Owners can now compare themselves to their peers, which creates pressure for progress. A Digital Enterprise program offers the technology training they need to increase their competitiveness. The Council is also encouraging the start-up and relocation of home-based businesses that can use ultrafast broadband to provide high-value services. For citizens, Whittlesea’s libraries offer training, technology and a demonstration center called the Digital Hub, where they can see 100 Mbps service in action.

Digital in Place of Physical Infrastructure

The emphasis on broadband and ICT has already moved the dial in terms of educational attainment. In 2011, just 21% of residents had completed higher education, compared with 32% in 2014. Professionals in the workforce have jumped from 17% of the total to 25% over the same period.

Each year, Whittlesea conducts a household survey to find out what is most on the minds of its residents. According to the latest survey, it is all about infrastructure failing to keep pace with strong growth, whether it is roads, public transportation, schools or social services. The city’s Intelligent Community strategy aims to help the community use ultrafast broadband to obtain services, expand e-commerce, improve education and reduce demand for transportation, so that the growth engine can keep running while delivering a higher quality of life.

Population: 197,500

Website: www.whittlesea.vic.gov.au

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