Saint Petersburg will become a leader among the cities with smart digital infrastructure and a global supplier of software and hardware solutions for «smart cities». Government, business, leading universities and industry associations have pooled their efforts to develop the CityNet project - a «smart city» digital platform. The project was presented for the first time at the regional Foresight Fleet 2017 by participants of track «The Future of Telecommunications and Communications» which was headed by the GS Group head-manager of strategic marketing, Andrey Bezrukov. On 6 July 2017 in Smolny at a meeting chaired by the Saint Petersburg governor, Georgiy Poltavchenko, Mr. Bezrukov presented the results of the May expedition.
GS Group, Rostelekom, Lentelofonstroy, and Avangard Saint Petersburg IT companies in a cooperation with Smolny ATS state unitary enterprise and the IT and Communication Committee of Saint Petersburg, alongside the Peter the Great Saint Petersburg Polytechnic University, the ITMO University and industry associations - the Association of Electronic Developers and Manufacturers (ARPE) and Russoft non-profit organization intend to make Saint Petersburg a global leader in the development of software and hardware for «smart cities». This is a consortium intended to create comprehensive solutions for «smart cities» including such components as «end-to-end» technology (artificial intellect, machine learning, block chain, and quantum cryptography) under the National Technological Initiative, software and electronics, business models and related legal frames, and the ethics and ontology for similar projects being implemented for the first time ever, anywhere.
Integration of the CityNet communicative platform will create conditions for establishment and development of a new industry - digital «smart city» services. This single safe digital space will promote growth in the number and profits of core businesses as well as the number of users of digital services. Finally, this will permit Saint Petersburg to be in the top list of «smart cities» that will appear in Russia by 2025 under the Digital Economy Development Program.
“The digital economy is the data economy. We have to develop and launch a business model for data monetization by initially testing it in existing city systems and then scaling it to the city’s market for digital data. It is important that the companies in the CityNet project team have extensive experience in creating of business models for mass services on a national scale and they can apply them worldwide by making the city a global site for advanced solutions. We think that developing and exporting competences and business models for the «smart city» are the main priority in our work with CityNet,” highlighted Mr. Bezrukov.
The CityNet project team will establish a center of competence whose primary task will be global leadership by Saint Petersburg in the development of smart software and hardware solutions for «smart cities». The center’s development concept and plan are including Saint Petersburg’s digital transformation by 2025 is planned to be approved in city governmental level this year.
Photo from the official website of the St. Petersburg Administration.