Seoul was recognized as the Smart City of 2022 at the Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona

The capital of South Korea, Seoul, has been named the Smart City of the Year 2022 in the framework of the Global Smart City Awards that are awarded annually at the Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona. Additionally, this year’s edition gave Kyiv a special recognition for using digital services to save lives in the context of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that began in February.

The Honors Committee, made up of representatives from Barcelona City Council, UN-Habitat, World Bank, European Commission Mission on Climate Change and Smart Cities and Smart City Expo World Congress, awarded the Korean capital for its Seoul-focused Smart Platform on digital inclusion policies that guarantee the five basic digital rights – Communication mobility, education, security and use of technology – and provide digital services adapted to socially vulnerable groups.

Seoul Digital Foundation President Yosik Kang announced after receiving it prizealso It is “a great honor to be chosen as the winning city in these prestigious awards. It is especially important because it rewards smart city policy in Seoul. We hope this gives strength to the suffering citizens of Seoul after the recent Itaewon tragedy.”

Likewise the city of Kyiv (Ukraine), whose mayor, Vitali Klitschko, participated in the Smart City Expo World Congress to explain how the commitment to digitalization allowed them to be more flexible during the dispute, was particularly appreciated by the jury.

Sustainability, Safety, Inclusion and Innovation Awards

in the Energy and Environment categorythe software project he developed TerraGo Technologies to maintain and implement the public lighting network for the city of Chicago in the United States. In Mobility, the DIGI-V initiative was awarded to digitize traffic in the German city of Wiesbaden, developed by Yunex Traffic.

Dublin, the capital of Ireland, received the Governance and Economics Award for its drone development project While Amsterdam saw the youth cybersecurity game Hackshield win in the Security category. The Inclusion Award was for the Global Initiative for Inclusive Information and Communications Technology (G3ict) Global Initiative for Inclusive Sidewalks AI Project for the City of Atlanta.

And the

Argentine capital, Buenos Aireswas awarded the Infrastructure and Construction Award for 3D City project, A new tool to promote sustainable urban development. On the other hand, in the category of enabling technologies, the winner was the Belgian city of Bruges for the smart city data platform, in which the cities of Leuven and Roeslari also participated.

Two projects were awarded in the innovation category. The first is AutoSafety Uganda, an initiative to reduce accidents and pollution in the African country developed by Wanyama Autosafety Initiatives. The second winner was the Empowering Cities with Data project of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, India.

The last honour, the Leadership Award, given to people and entities that have worked in favor of developing smart solutions internationally, was for Emilia Saez, UCLG’s Secretary of the United Cities and Local Governments, and the Governor of Antioquia (Colombia), Anibal Gaviria.