Traffic congestion main issue as Nicosia scores poorly on smart city index

The IMD Smart City Index 2023 ranked Nicosia in 117th place amongst its 141 ‘smart cities’ with respondents identifying road congestion as their key concern.

Nicosia also ranked ‘CC’ in structures and ‘C’ in technologies with the grade range from AAA to D.

For the survey, respondents were asked to select from a list of 15 indicators the five they considered most important for their city. The higher the percentage of responses per sector, the higher the priority for the city.

According to a statement from Nicosia municipality, noteworthy points of the survey for Nicosia are that high on the list of priority issues is road congestion, with a rate of 67.2 per cent.

Just 15.3 per cent considered public transport to be satisfactory.

Next is housing with 51.3 per cent and corruption with security in third and fourth place with 45.4 per cent each.

Just 16.2 per cent said that “finding housing with rent equal to 30 per cent or less of a monthly salary is not a problem”, while 48.3 per cent said public safety is not a problem.

In the health and safety sector under the “structures” pillar, 69.5 per cent said basic sanitation meets the needs of the poorest areas, while 47.1 per cent said the recycling services are satisfactory.

Under the governance section, 40.8 per cent said that information on local government decisions is easily accessible – with just 18.8 per cent saying that corruption of city officials is not an issue of concern. Just under one in five said that residents contribute to decision making of local government.

Also, just 19 per cent agreed that online public access to city finances has reduced corruption.

In the health & safety section, 37.5 per cent agreed that CCTV cameras made residents feel safer, while 39.9 per cent said that arranging medical appoints online has improved access.

The report begins with a quote attributed to Michelangelo: “I have never felt salvation in nature. I love cities above all.”

In its introduction to the report, under the heading ‘A New Knowledge Partner’, it said that the World Sustainable Cities Organisation (WeGO) is a membership-based international association of local governments and other related stakeholders.

“It was founded by 50 member cities in 2010 as the World e-Governments Organisation,” it added.