Communities from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Taiwan and Vietnam become finalists for Intelligent Community of the Year to be named at the ICF Summit in October

(New York, USA & Binh Duong, Vietnam – June 21, 2022) – In an announcement today at the conclusion of a hybrid live and online conference, the Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) named the Top7 Intelligent Communities of 2022. The 20th annual Top7 list includes cities and counties from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Taiwan and Vietnam. One of these seven finalists in the think tank’s annual awards program will be named the Intelligent Community of the Year at the ICF Summit in October. (www.icfsummit.com)

On the Sunshine Coast, we are nestled in nature and green at heart.

We care about our environment, from the sparkling coastline to the ancient peaks of the Glass House Mountains and verdant green rainforests.

And more importantly, we care about preserving it for years to come.

I wrote my last post, “Why Are We Falling Apart?” in response to a heartfelt editorial by David Brooks of The New York Times. Confronting today’s epidemic of inhumane behavior in America – reckless driving, unrest in schools, fights on airliners, hate crimes and murders – he asked, “What the hell is going on?” His plaintive and honest answer was “I don’t know.”

In my post, I explained why I thought we have been falling apart – not just recently but gradually for the past 40 years, and not just in the United States but in fellow industrialized nations around the world.

But understanding reasons is only gets us so far. What matters is what we can do about it.

Western Downs Green Power Hub, the largest solar farm in Australia, is now officially owned by Neoen, as the company completes financial close on the sale.

Western Downs, a 460MWp solar farm located near Chinchilla in South West Queensland, will deliver clean energy into Powerlink’s transmission network and is expected to bring significant economic benefits to the region.

The financing of Western Downs was completed five months after Neoen secured a 352MWp power purchase agreement with CleanCo Queensland, in one of Australia’s most substantial renewable contracts to date.

Maroochydore, Wednesday 22 July 2020: A better connected South-East Queensland (SEQ) has arrived.

OneQode, Australia’s first carrier to deploy equipment and commence operations out of the Sunshine Coast Cable Landing Station (CLS), is now ready to launch its digital services from the Sunshine Coast direct to its Brisbane CBD Points of Presence (Equinix BR1 & NextDC B2). With the lowest latency path to East Asia from Brisbane, this network is set to provide unparalleled speed to all Queenslanders – ushering in a new era of internet connectivity.

In this video, ICF Co-Founder Lou Zacharilla speaks about COVID-19 and other challenges with Sunshine Coast Mayor Mark Jamieson.

Three Australian cities and two in New Zealand have made the short list produced by the New York based Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) for recognition as being the world’s smartest community.

The think tank has named Adelaide, Prospect (SA), the Sunshine Coast, Wellington and Whanganui in a list of 21 cities to begin its annual eight-month process that will conclude with it naming the 2020 Intelligent Community of the Year in June 2020 at the ICF Summit.

EXPERT OBSERVER (TERRY RYDER)

I believe real estate markets are driven more by local factors than national ones. While many commentators are placing great significance on interest rate reductions as a prime driver of real estate markets, I’m much more interested in what’s going on the coalface of local economies. 

And, in those terms, I put a high rating on the Sunshine Coast as a market that investors of all kinds should be considering. I regard the Sunshine Coast as the strongest market in Queensland at the moment and indeed one of the strongest in Australia.

The Sunshine Coast is a metropolitan area that spreads across 2,291 square kilometers of Australia’s coastline about 100 kilometers north of Brisbane. A sub-tropical paradise of beautiful beaches and scenic mountains, the Coast has experienced boom times and almost doubled its population since the 1980s from tourism and retirement relocation, which drove the growth of construction and retailing. But the ebbing of the commodities boom that fueled Australia’s economy has revealed the fragility of the local economy. 

To help its population overcome economic challenges, the Sunshine Coast government introduced the “Speed It Up” campaign, designed to spread knowledge of the benefits of high-speed Internet access as well as how to obtain it. The city also introduced a series of training and innovation-focused programs over the past several years, lowering its youth unemployment rate to only 5.4%. Click here to read more about the Sunshine Coast.

The Sunshine Coast Council has announced the completion of its AU$7.2 million cable landing station at Maroochydore that will house the connection of the AU$35 million Japan-Guam-Australia subsea system.  

The landing station, which was built by Vertiv, is located adjacent to the new Maroochydore city centre, a 60-hectare area that is being developed into a commercial, retail, medium and high density residential development area with new road transport, public open spaces, community facilities, and infrastructure.