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Pretoria City Hall in the City of Tshwane. |
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In a bid to move the Tshwane SmartCity project from idea to reality, City of Tshwane Executive Mayor, Dr Gwen Ramokgopa, has requested The Innovation Hub to set up a project office at its precinct, reporting directly to the Office of the Mayor. This follows two years of planning between the City's Local Economic Development Unit and The Innovation Hub.
The City of Tshwane houses the headquarters of all the national government departments and is home to four universities and seven of the eight science councils, such as the CSIR and SABS. Two of the successful Blue IQ projects, namely The Innovation Hub and the Automotive Supplier Park are also located in the city, which boasts a fibre-optic network infrastructure - an important ingredient of a 'Smart City'. This will, undoubtedly, be conducive to rolling out broadband to citizens, businesses and government facilities. As such, the key elements of the project that will be supported by the project office include:
- a City of Tshwane Baseline Study to define industry clusters and investigate the status of university research and the level of applied research, as well as develop a skills profile for the City and investigate the feasibility of broadband roll-out to citizens, business and government facilities.
- the Tshwane Growth Agreement, a time-bound intervention to develop new industry clusters, products and services, and leverage support for local industries from key players in the region to achieve economic growth.
- a Centers of Expertise Programme to use top-level knowledge and research to support industry and grow new products and services.
- a Broadband Roll-out Programme to provide connectivity and affordable broadband access to businesses, schools, hospitals and citizens, and
- a City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality operational efficiency study to enhance the City's operations through the use of smart technologies that provide efficient service to residents.
In 2005, the City of Tshwane and the City of Oulu in Finland entered into a twinning agreement to help Tshwane become a 'Smart City'. Funding has been sought from the Municipal Association in Finland through its North-South Local Government Cooperation Programme and a delegation including Dr Gwen Ramokgopa, municipal executives and representatives from private companies will visit the City of Oulu in Finland during May this year to formalise the partnership.
The delegation will meet with the Mayor of Oulu and visit some of the key organisations involved in the Oulu SmartCity Initiative. Through the partnership the City of Oulu will transfer skills to the City of Tshwane to more effectively implement its SmartCity Project and enhance its operational efficiency.
For further information contact Tsietsi Maleho or Jeanette Morwane at The Innovation Hub at
012 844 0023/0028.
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