A fascinating 15 minute presentation last week from Josep Ramon Ferrer from Doxa at the Inter-American Development Bank. Fiscal decentralization was the main focus of the IDB conference. Oddly, there wasn`t much talk about `smart government`in other presentations. Most of the public finance characteristics that make governments `smart` was discussed including revenue mobilization, public investments, and debt. The top takeaways were:
- Cities have significant economic power when compared to countries and large multinationals. This means that cities need to manage debt, revenue and public investments effectively.
- Planning is critical to achieving smart city objectives. Cities need simple long-term visions. Cities need to engage citizens.
- With so many technologies at play, smart cities need to create an integrated technology platform.