To make progress on smart cities and e-government services requires more effective partnerships between public and private sectors, with a shared risk approach underpinned by policies and procurement designed to facilitate this shared risk, according to speakers at a webinar hosted by Amazon Web Services (AWS) in collaboration with ITWeb this week. Focusing on building citizen-focused smart cities for the future, the webinar brought together representatives from the Gauteng Provincial Government, the City of Tshwane and AWS.
Cyril Baloyi, Head of Department at the Gauteng Department of e-Government, said smart cities' progress doesn’t necessarily require the development of a host of new solutions. “Ninety-five percent of the smart city solutions we need are already out there. We don’t need to develop new solutions. We need to enhance what exists and make sure it can work for us here,” he commented.
But, Baloyi also pointed out that it is important that the private sector stops seeing itself as a service provider making money out of the government: “We need to see more public-private partnerships in which the private sector sees itself as part of the solution, with collaboration models that share the risk. Government can’t build the smart cities on our own; our job is to co-ordinate and make sure the right policies are in place to facilitate these cities.”
According to Baloyi, the Department has learned from past initiatives in this area, and is actively working to facilitate more effective partnerships across departments and with the private sector. “For example, the provincial 4IR strategy document was produced in conjunction with the CSIR and the private sector, and we are already working with the private sector on quick wins identified in that document. We have also started eliminating silos between departments and cities in the province, to integrate e-government solutions and strategies,” he explained.
However, procurement policies remain a challenge: “The current IT policies and procedures take too long. Talks are under way in a bid to relax these policies or enable them to adapt to technology requirements. I think we may have the ear of the Presidency itself in this regard.”
Polls of public sector webinar participants revealed that, while they viewed smart city progress as important, most felt too few smart city solutions were being realised. On the question of how important it is that South Africa drives the journey to smart cities of the future, the vast majority of respondents (89%) answered either ‘very important’ or ‘fairly important’. Ninety-eight percent said smart city solutions were not being employed enough in South Africa.
Aongola George Mufana, Chief Information Officer at the City of Tshwane, said there was definite leadership now coming from the Gauteng Provincial Government in terms of smart city development. “We are seeing positive leadership to consolidate services and enable a seamless broadband network on which cities can implement their own solutions,” he said.
However, Mufana also emphasised the need for closer collaboration between the public and private sector.
Jabu Sibanyoni, Senior Solutions Architect Sub-Saharan Africa, Amazon Web Services (AWS), said AWS works closely with government organisations around the world to put the right resources in place to build the citizen-focused smart cities of the future. “For example, AWS has people working closely with governments across different geographies to understand their policies, how cloud and technology can enable them, and to enhance policy building to ensure the policy won’t be an inhibitor but enable what they are trying to achieve,” he said.
The AWS Cloud lowers the barrier to entry to even small and mid-sized municipalities to begin deploying smart city innovations, Sibanyoni explained, noting that, contrary to what some public sector stakeholders believe, the cloud could in fact be significantly more secure than on-premises environments. Because there is now an AWS region in South Africa, any concerns about latency and data residency have also been addressed, making AWS an ideal partner for smart city initiatives in South Africa, he said.
You can still register for the final webinar in the AWS Cloud Technology as a Driver for Growth and Innovation series, with a keynote from the National Department of Health Chief Director on Thursday, 18 November here.
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