Manila slipped six places to 121st among 142 cities worldwide in the 2024 Smart City Index (SCI) by the IMD World Competitiveness Center, from 115th in 2023, and the lowest in four years.
This year’s SCI, the second report released by Smart City Observatory, combines hard data and survey responses to show the extent to which technology is enabling cities to address the challenges they face to achieve a higher quality of life for their inhabitants.
The report found Manila was doing well in specific areas like online access to job listings which has made it easier to find work, scoring 75.7; online purchasing of tickets to shows and museums, which has made it easier to attend, scoring 74.2 and ; businesses are creating new jobs, 71.6.
In terms of the most urgent priorities that respondents were most concerned about, three key areas were highlighted.
These are health services which was tagged by 53.9 percent of respondents.; corruption / transparency, 50.6 percent and; unemployment, 45.9 percent.
Europe and Asia contain the world’s smartest cities, finds 2024 edition of IMD’s Smart City Index led by Zurich, topping the list for the fifth consecutive edition followed by Oslo, Canberra, Geneva and Singapore.
“Cities must design and adopt strategies that can resist the test of a future plagued with growing uncertainties,” said Bruno Lanvin, president of the Smart City Observatory. “Health- related concerns remain high, while climate-related ones grow even larger; a mix complicated by renewed international tensions. Trust and good governance are growing in importance, and the significance of Al in city design and management is set to increase. Counterintuitive as it may sound, Al can help cities to become more human-centric.”