Iran’s smartest cities were announced at the Second Smart City Conference held on August 22-23 at Tehran’s Milad Tower Conference Hall.
The event focused on investment opportunities and infrastructures in smart cities, ICTPRESS reported.
A smart city is an urban development vision to integrate multiple information and communications technology, as well as Internet of Things solutions in a secure fashion to manage a city’s assets.
IoT is the network of physical devices, vehicles, buildings and other items—embedded with electronics, software, sensors, actuators and network connectivity—that enable these objects to collect and exchange data.
Iran’s smartest cities were announced by a deputy at the Center for Developing Electronic Government and Information Technology affiliated to the Interior Ministry.
At the closing ceremony, Alireza Barati added that the cities were classified into those with populations under 200,000, between 200,000 and 1 million, and above 1 million.
Among cities with a population of under 200,000, Shahroud (Semnan Province) and Latifi (Fars Province) were announced as the smartest cities.
The cities were assessed on the basis of six indices, namely investment attraction, computerization of municipal procedures, electronic services, ICT infrastructures, smart management and sustainability measures for developing smart cities.
Among cities with a population of between 200,000 and 1 million, Yazd, Hamedan, Zanjan, Kermanshah and Sari were selected in different categories.
The cities were selected by a group of representatives from the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, the Interior Ministry, the conference workgroups and Information and Communications Technology Organization, Lastly, Tabriz, Qom, Isfahan and Shiraz were selected as smart cities with a population of above 1 million.
IoT Park
At the same event, Nasrollah Jahangard, the head of Information and Communications Technology Organization, announced that a specialized Internet of Things park will be set up soon.
He added that talks were underway with the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development and the High Council of Housing to prepare a guideline that will chart their development roadmap in this regard.
“Nearly 1,000 cities in Iran currently have 3G coverage, all of which are expected to receive 4G coverage by the end of the current Iranian year (March 20, 2017)” he said.
Jahangard noted that with smart cities, the quality of life will improve for citizens as it will reduce costs and help save time, a great deal of which is currently wasted in bureaucratic procedures.
Mohammad Khansari, the head of Iran’s Telecoms Research Center, had previously said the needed infrastructures were being prepared to set up the IoT park near Karaj, west of Tehran.
Khansari also said the tech firms will establish a presence in the area by the end of the year.
Public calls for investment will also be announced in the second quarter of the current Iranian year.
