A smart city is about people, says Eberhard van der Laan

Eberhard van der Laan has been the Mayor of Amsterdam since July 2010. As a mayor, he is responsible for public order and safety, integrated security policy, regulation and harbours, general affairs, communication, legal affairs and city administration. In a freewheeling interview with Business Today's Goutam Das, Laan talks about Amsterdam's progress as a smart city . 

Q. There are both technology-centric and citizen-centric definitions of a smart city. What is a smart city to you?

A. A smart city is about people. Like every other city. The opportunities that technology brings to improve our working and living can be leveraged only if we keep in mind that cities are about people. This is the only way to really create impact. So, technology is a means and never a goal in itself. Because of the scale of Amsterdam, we are able to test new solutions in living labs, actual neighbourhoods in the city.

Q. When did Amsterdam embark on its smart city journey and what necessitated it?

A. Amsterdam Smart City was initiated in 2009 by its founding partners, Alliander (the grid operator in Amsterdam), KPN (the telecommunications provider in Amsterdam) and the Municipality of Amsterdam. We took five years to learn what the potential of "smart"  technologies can be and how new business models evolve. Necessity? The increase in urbanization puts a large pressure on cities. More and more people live in the city, work in the city and visit the city. This creates a tension, for example in the fields of mobility, crowd management or energy. We want to keep the city a liveable place, not only for ourselves but also for the next generations. That means we have to be creative and find solutions for wicked problems. These problems are so complex that top-down solutions do not work. We need an integrated demand-driven approach, involving business, knowledge and government and the people that live and work in the city. Technology is popping-up everywhere and developments around sharing economy, smart grids, big data, play a big role.

Q. What progress has Amsterdam made over the last few years?

A. Large impact with regards to electric vehicles, sharing economy (cars, Airbnb), energy transition and especially also facilitating SMEs to create new products and services. Companies like TOON, Peer.by, Car2go, etc.. Amsterdam Smart City is a platform with over 12,000 contacts, 120 partners, 72 projects in the fields of mobility, energy, connectivity, (open) data, circularity and transformation.

Q. If you were to compare Amsterdam to Barcelona, how are the smart city initiatives of these two cities different?

A. We collaborate very happily with Barcelona, but the key difference probably is that Barcelona has a bigger focus on technology itself whereas Amsterdam has a more social focus.

Q. How does Amsterdam finance its smart city initiatives? Is there a revenue model for private companies when they invest?

A. Amsterdam Smart City as an organization is a public - private partnership, hosted by the Amsterdam Economic Board. The programme partners, the municipality of Amsterdam, knowledge institutions and companies involved in Amsterdam Smart City, contribute with cash and in kind. Together, these parties finance the platform and the small organization behind it. The new concepts that are realized through the platform are paid for by the parties involved in those concepts. With cooperation of the Amsterdam university of Applied Science, one of the programme partners, Amsterdam Smart City is analyzing the concepts, in order to develop new business models that can be used in future concepts.

Q. India hopes to develop 100 smart cities over the next few decades-retrofit some, build greenfield cities as well. What can Indian cities learn from Amsterdam?

A. We, in Amsterdam, acknowledge the steep growth of cities in India and the challenges this growth brings along for the government and the people of India. Although we are a small country/city compared to your beautiful country, we would like to see how we can partner with India in the ambitious plans to develop 100 smart cities. We believe we can work together with India on urban planning, waste management, water management and cycling infrastructure, topics acknowledged by your Ministry of Urban Development when they signed an Memorandum of Understanding with our Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment in June 2013 on the exchange of knowledge on these topics.