Lack of transparency limits the development of smart cities in Mexico, say municipalities

Mexico is one of the Latin American countries with great potential for the creation of smart cities; however, municipal representatives from various states in the country pointed out that there is a long way to go to consolidate projects of this nature.

Within the framework of the World Cities Day that is celebrated today, October 31, municipal authorities that are part of the Smart Cities Network of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, shared the common challenges to overcome.

Rocío Martínez Bibiano, head of the ICT Office of the Metropolitan Planning Institute (IMPLAN) of Chihuahua, explained that building an intelligent city is synonymous with transparency, and this is one of the most difficult tasks that any organization or institution can face.

In this sense, he argued that the paradigm that technology is the solution must be broken, instead, citizen initiatives in collaboration with the public sector are those that generate more efficient, habitable, sustainable and competitive spaces.

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“Las smart cities they are those in which it is smart for the citizen to live because their quality of life is raised. They are citizen initiatives in collaboration with the public sector, which makes certain strategies more efficient, livable, sustainable and competitive; and therefore more intelligent,” commented Martínez Bibiano.

Given this, Edgar Darío Benítez Ruiz, municipal president of Tecate, Baja California, stressed that bad customs, which have been practiced for years, have been the main obstacle to the creation of smart cities.

“Especially officials are difficult to change. In addition, a part of the population is still afraid of the new, of the different, but we are working to change that perspective,” she assured.

ICT’s to avoid bureaucracy

According to Deloitte, a smart city is characterized by its development initiatives in the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), which have the purpose of optimizing the management of infrastructure and urban services.

Under this concept, Tecate has worked to streamline processes within the Government, with the implementation of technology to avoid bureaucracy and “endless paperwork” as much as possible, explained Benítez Ruiz.

Likewise, the general director of Programming and Government Development of the municipality of Irapuato, Alma Delgado Juárez, warned that standardizing the procedures in accordance with the best practices of regulatory improvement at the municipal and state levels, in the same digital platform, is the next step to be taken. should give in public policies.

“It is important to focus on best practices according to the Smart Cities Manual of the Friderich Naumann Foundation. Otherwise, it would not make sense to implement, just to implement”, declared the official.

In this regard, Christian Correa Castañeda, director of Visor Urbano in Guadalajara, added that the public policy made by the federal government cannot be taken as a basis for the municipalities, but they must be tropicalized, implemented and measured based on their results.

Inequality and low budget

Monterrey and Guadalajara have been pioneers in the development of smart cities in Mexico, so that representatives of both demarcations shared the main obstacles in the matter.

On the one hand, Cintia Smith, secretary of Innovation in the city of Monterrey, argued that there is little budget, lack of professionalization and inequality to create adequate cities.

For this reason, he considered it essential that the projects have the capacity for interaction, that is, that they be planned in phases so that they improve with the experience and data collection, instead of a “perfect grand launch”.