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Smart Cities as Main Topic at SPIEF’s Innovation Space

Smart Cities as Main Topic at SPIEF’s Innovation Space

Innovation Space, a Roscongress Foundation project aimed at developing high-tech companies in Russia, opened its programme during the opening day of SPIEF with a session entitled ‘Smart City Technology: Rebooting 2022’. 

Alexander Belsky, Chairman of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg paved the way for the discussion by saying that the city government has to strive to be invisible, while making their city as comfortable as possible. “We have to come up with platforms where government and business join forces for the good of the people. Any residential administration – whether in a city, town, or village – provides services for the public. The quality of those services depends on how well we can digitalize them.”

Vladimir Shchekin, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Co-owner, Rodina Group elaborated on the subject: “My role as a developer is to assist the state in achieving socio-economic goals. When we design our projects, we take into account such indices as the development of human potential, urban environment, and gross urban product.” This work results in innovative residential clusters with ample sports and educational infrastructure, where “people can develop their potential.” “Human is the main value. This is not just a humanitarian thesis. It is a vital activity principle,” stated Vladimir Shchekin. 

Dmitrii Markov, General Director, VisionLabs highlighted the incredible potential of Russian tech companies. For instance, 3 of the top 10 companies in the field of computer vision are Russian, and demand for their services keeps growing. Further development of the industry depends on the harmonization of legislation, since biometric technology is directly related to personal data. “We are waiting for the agreements that have been reached to come out in the form of requirements and legislative acts. Once this happens, we will be living in the new legislative reality,” said Dmitry Markov.   

His colleague Dmitry Dyrmovsky, Chief Executive Officer, Speech Technology Centre that specializes in biometric technologies stated the following: “If 3–5 years ago we were talking about data collection, IT devices, and sensors, now it is all about client-centred platforms and services for the people. The city remains inclusive if a resident can get a service from the government or business anywhere. A smart city is no longer something speculative. Recently, the smart city standard was adopted, which includes a total of 18 systems.”  

According to Kirill Kaem, Senior Vice-President for Innovations, Skolkovo Foundation the level of modern technologies leads to the highest possible return rate on each invested rouble. For instance, it is much easier to reorganize the transport system digitally than to achieve the same effect by building a bridge or a highway junction. At that, the development of smart cities will take place due to integration of various systems. “There is a digital transport system. It is developing, and it is doing well. And then there is a digital health system. But now they co-exist autonomously. If we could integrate them, we would save hundreds of lives a year, when the system would adjust traffic lights signals and build a route to evacuate injured people as quickly as possible," illustrated Kirill Kayem. 

The discussion was closed by two speakers. Valeria Matukhina, CEO of SberTroyka talked about Troyka card implementation: it is now being used by over 30 million people all over Russia. Nikolay Pronin, Deputy Director General for Concession Programmes and Director for Urban Public Transport Division at Sinara Transport Machines presented an innovative Sinara-6254 trolleybus. The vehicle was unveiled at SPIEF 2022. 

 

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