The Skolkovo Foundation chairman, Arkady Dvorkovich, spoke at the Moscow Urban Forum as part of an international panel with expert representatives from Germany, Russia, the UK, Columbia, and the UAE.
Mr. Dvorkovich focused on smart city solutions, a new area in urban development that has emerged with the advent of artificial intelligence and digital technologies. During the panel discussion titled “A Star is Born Cases of Successful Urban Transformation,” Mr. Dvorkovich envisioned smart city technologies being developed by implementing large-scale urban projects.
Smart city developments almost invariably involve innovative technological solutions covering a broad spectrum, whether it's transport, health, environment, home, etc. With growing urbanization and the prospect of more than half the global population living in cities by the middle of the century, there is a drive to create solutions that facilitate maintaining or increasing the standard of living in increasingly crowded urban areas.
Skolkovo Innovation Center - a testing ground for urban solutions. Photo: Sk.ru.
The question regarding innovative smart city technologies is what unmet needs are there in the urban environment? Furthermore, because some of these technologies are so new, there are certain restrictions on where developers can test them. Skolkovo has served as the ideal testing ground for such developments because of its unique legal status.
Arkady Dvorkovich: “Skolkovo is developing simultaneously as a town within a city on the one hand, and on the other hand as a town with a unique administration, a university complex, technoparks for hundreds and thousands of startups, a unique medical cluster in partnership with foreign clinics, and R&D centers belonging to large companies all coexisting simultaneously. However, Skolkovo is also a center for the development of solutions for the entire country – smart city solutions, security, including biometrics. Skolkovo has become the first town for testing autonomous transport, 5G technologies, and will soon test 6G. Many regions are already implementing these developments, particularly medical technologies based on artificial intelligence.”
Skolkovo is currently implementing over 200 urban projects with an annual turnover of 110 million euros (10 billion rubles approx.):
Skolkovo urban solutions include the following:
According to Mr. Dvorkovich, the next step requires investment into human capital and education, thus creating opportunities for each individual to utilize Skolkovo developments.