Tel Aviv has been named the world’s smartest city by the Smart City Expo World Congress held in Barcelona. It beat out 250 cities around the world.
The main reason for the city’s victory was its new Digi-Tel program which will let its residents take care of all their municipal business online, such as paying taxes and filing for various types of permits.
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More than 90, 000 people who reside in Tel Aviv have already signed up for the program.
In announcing the winner the competition sated, “The decided commitment of the municipal authority of Tel Aviv towards a new and more direct model of relating to its citizens, which takes advantage of the potential of digital technologies and geolocation thanks to the mass deployment of Wi-Fi technology won the city the recognition as Best City in the World Smart Cities Awards presented last night.”
“The jury panel particularly commended the roll-out of the DigiTel model, a platform for transforming the Israeli city into a smart benchmark and a pioneer in new models of public engagement in such key aspects as urban development and participatory budgeting.”
Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai said, “I am pleased the municipality was recognized for its use of technology and creativity found so abundantly in the city that is used to improve public service and make city services more advanced, efficient and transparent.”
This was the fourth edition of the Smart City Expo World Congress, the global summit for smart cities. The Expo had more than 10, 500 visitors, 400 participating cities and 242 exhibitors. The international summit on smart cities will be held for the fifth time in November 2015 at Fira de Barcelona’s Gran Via exhibition center.