In this episode, Professor Perry Yang, a distinguished speaker at the UM6P Africa Smart Cities Forum, presents his insights on smart cities. He debuts by stressing that smart cities should be inclusive of all social groups, and develop not only high technologies but also those techs that are accessible by all individuals to enable communities to tackle their socio-economic issues. Social equity should be put at the center of city planning, which requires incorporating innovation to help understand consequences and preserve the resources as well as the environment.
According to Professor Perry Pei-Ju Yang, smart cities must develop not solely top-down solutions, but also bottom-up ones to empower the communities’ usage of data. The African smart cities, he warned, should not make the same mistakes their Western counterparts made in the past, and the urbanization processes in Africa will be so critical. They will define our future and their models will be decisive.
By Professor Perry Yang
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