The city-state of Singapore is frequently considered among the world’s smartest cities by experts such as Boyd Cohen and media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal. Unsurprisingly then, all five advisory board members selected Singapore as a smart city in Asia-Pacific. The underlying reason for selecting Singapore, however, varied although that is also an indication of the city-state’s many initiatives in place. This is underscored by the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) Smart Nation vision whose tagline is “Many smart ideas; one smart nation.”

One reason for Singapore’s success – according to all advisory board participants and evidenced through research reports – is the city-state’s leadership in making high-speed broadband widely available and in encouraging its adoption. According to an EIU report, Singapore had over 95% household coverage with an adoption rate of 46% in 2014. Equally it was second in the world in mobile broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants in the same year, according to the International Telecommunications Union. At the same time, it is at the forefront in a number of smart city initiatives. In 2016, for instance, it allowed nuTonomy, an American start-up that provides software for driverless cars, to experiment with self-driving taxis. Almost two-thirds (63%) of residents in the EIU survey also recognize their city-state is smart today, mostly due to initiatives to improve the environment and provide safety and security.