Z/Yen Group Announces Global Smart City Index: 9th Edition ... Ranked 14th Among 79 Cities Worldwide (3rd in Asia, 1st in Korea)
Busan has solidified its reputation as a global smart city, ranking 14th in the world and 3rd in Asia in a global smart city evaluation, thanks to its comprehensive efforts toward digital transformation.
The city announced that in the 9th edition of the Smart Centres Index (SCI), published by the UK-based global consulting firm Z/YEN, Busan ranked 14th among 79 major cities worldwide.
The official name of the Global Smart Centres Index is "The Smart Centres Index" (with "Centre" referring to a city). It is released twice a year, in the first and second halves, and has been published nine times to date.
Busan first entered the rankings three years ago and has consistently climbed higher since then, a feat unique among cities worldwide. Achieving 14th place in this 9th edition marks the third consecutive time Busan has reached its goal of being in the global top 20, following the 7th edition. This signifies that Busan has firmly established itself as a world-class smart city.
In Asia, Busan is now recognized as one of the "Top 3 Smart Cities," closely trailing Singapore (7th) and Hong Kong (12th). Seoul maintained its domestic top spot at 29th, the same as the previous edition, with Busan firmly holding its lead in Korea.
The leading cities in the rankings include London (1st), Zurich (2nd), New York (3rd), Los Angeles (6th), Singapore (7th),
Hong Kong (12th), Berlin (20th), Washington DC (23rd), Seoul (29th), Beijing (30th), Tokyo (33rd), and Paris (38th).
Busan's strong performance was largely due to its high rankings in five out of six evaluation categories in the "Competitiveness Assessment" section.
The city ranked 12th in Business Environment, 6th in Infrastructure, and 7th in Reputational, driving its upward momentum.
Notably, Busan entered the top ranks for the first time in Human Capital (13th) and Financial Services (9th), which is highly encouraging for the city's continued growth and future advancements as a smart city.
Additionally, in the "Evaluation Perspective" section, Busan's Delivery Capability, which reflects the quality of innovation, jumped from 15th to 11th, indicating the high quality of the city's smart city policies.
Furthermore, in the "Expert Survey" section, which is based on online surveys of global smart sector experts, Busan once again ranked 1st in the Reputation category, maintaining its position from the previous edition.
The process of bidding for the 2030 World Expo reaffirmed the increased value of Busan's city brand.
Given that these are evaluations from field experts, Busan's potential for development as a global smart city is expected to grow even further.
Busan's leap in the rankings is clear evidence of the effectiveness of the "Digital Economy Transition Policy" that Mayor Park Hyungjoon has been consistently pursuing.
This also means that by integrating digital technology throughout the city, Busan is naturally enhancing the digital and smart experience for both citizens and external investors.
In particular, the "Digital Economy Innovation Office," which oversees the city's overall smartification and digitalization, has played a major role by fostering cutting-edge ICT technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), metaverse, cloud, and big data, and by making various efforts to build a knowledge service industry ecosystem.
Other ongoing initiatives include: establishing five major regional innovation clusters for new industries; creating an eco-friendly, high-efficiency green data center complex; providing 5G ultra-fast Wi-Fi service on city buses; expanding smart and digital transformation in manufacturing; building a quantum information technology industry ecosystem; and operating the "Busan Digital Innovation Academy" (training 10,000 advanced ICT professionals over five years) to ensure the sustainable growth of the digital city and discover and promote diverse digital industries.
The city plans to maintain this upward momentum based on these efforts.
Mayor Park Hyungjoon emphasized, "This evaluation result once again proves that our efforts to become a leading city in digital transformation are on the right track. With three consecutive top-tier rankings, Busan has now firmly established itself as a world-class smart city. We will continue to do our utmost to make Busan a 'global hub city' by driving bold waves of innovation across various sectors based on our smart city foundation."
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