Hong Kong has ranked 20th in a global list of smart cities, one spot down from last year and behind Beijing and Shanghai, while Singapore stands as the top-ranking city in Asia, securing the fifth position globally, a report shows.
The 2024 Smart City Index was compiled by the Swiss business school International Institute for Management Development, in partnership with the World Smart Sustainable Cities Organisation.
The report grades 142 cities by combining hard data and survey responses on how technology is enabling cities to provide a higher quality of life for their citizens, covering key areas including health and safety, mobility, activities, opportunities, and governance.
Zurich retained its top spot as the world's smartest city, followed by Oslo, Canberra, and Geneva.
Asian cities among the top 20 on the list also include Beijing (13th), Taipei (16th), Seoul (17th), and Shanghai (19th).
The report said Hong Kong was doing well in areas such as satisfactory recycling services, basic sanitation that meets the needs of the poorest areas, public transport, and public safety.
Meanwhile, respondents surveyed were most concerned about affordable housing, health services, and fulfilling employment.
Notably, the report said Asian and European cities dominate the list, with cities like Zurich, Oslo, Singapore, Abu Dhabi, Beijing, and Seoul consistently performing well since the inception of the index in 2019.
This came as Singapore's state-investment firm Temasek plans to ramp up investment in Europe, expecting to make net investments of as much as S$25 billion (HK$144.7 billion) over the next five years, said its new local chief in a Bloomberg interview.
Nagi Hamiyeh, its head of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, is looking for partnerships with companies including those tied to some of the world's wealthiest business families, the report said.
In other news, a separate report by credit reporting agency TransUnion said that the rate of suspicious digital fraud on transactions in Hong Kong was noticeably higher than in other markets globally last year.
It found that 6.6 percent of all digital transactions originating from Hong Kong in 2023 were suspected fraudulent transactions, compared with an average rate of 5 percent globally.
The city ranked 20th in the list. Reuters
