2020 Smart City Index: Dhaka Not among 109 Smart Cities

Under the 2020 Smart City Ranking, Dhaka has not made it to the list of 109 cities in the world.

The Smart City Index ranks cities based on economic and technological data, as well as expectations of their people about how their cities are "smart."

In collaboration with the Singapore University for Technology and Design (SUTD), the Institute for Management Development (IMD) released the 2020 Smart City Index on Thursday, with key findings on how technology plays a role in a way that is likely to stay in the Covid-19 era.

In a year that saw several European cities fall in the rankings, Singapore, Helsinki and Zurich reached the top of the 2020 Smart City Index.

In April and May 2020, hundreds of people from 109 cities were surveyed and asked questions about their city's technical provisions in five main areas — health and safety, accessibility, events, opportunities and governance.

"It is, of course, too early to draw lessons from Covid-19, Bruno Lanvin, President of the IMD Smart City Observatory, said:" Nevertheless, it is evident that we are at a crucial juncture, where the sanitary crisis is still very much with us, while the economic and social crisis it will involve has hardly begun.

The Smart City Index this year shows that cities that have been able to combine technology, leadership, and a powerful 'living and acting together' community should be able to withstand the most disruptive effects of such crises better.

Some of the Asian cities that made the list were Bengaluru, Mumbai, New Delhi , Hyderabad, Ho Chi Min, Osaka, Tokyo, Shanghai, Beijing and Bangkok.