In a new announcement out of Finland, the country’s second-biggest city region, Tampere, has said it is launching a new period of heavy IoT development and investment, to the tune of 6 to 10 billion Euros by 2030, with the goal of establishing a fully-integrated and internationally attractive Smart City.
The announcement goes on to say that this process is also designed to increase quality of life for citizens and give the companies taking part in the new development ecosystem an advantage when building better products for international markets.
Tampere has several projects in motion to target innovation, new business models and enhancing communities. They include better digital solutions for companies, city organizations and daily lives of the citizens. Meanwhile the city is supporting open data for anyone to use, including traffic data, location data, tourism information, city budget and procurement information.
The city plans to act as a testing ground and partnership broker for companies while using procurement to enable new solutions through city planning. At the same time, the release said it will develop more community driven, experimental and sustainable strategies using Smart City tech.
“All this will make Tampere even more attractive to international companies than it is now,” said Teppo Rantanen, Executive Director of economic policy, competitiveness and innovation, City of Tampere. “Tampere has a strong history in cooperation between different organizations and companies and now we have a dynamic process that enhances active cooperation even more.”
Some examples of future Tampere city development are on display at the Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona this week. They include:
Central Deck and Arena is an urban scale development on top of existing railway tracks in the heart of the city. The space will hold a multi-purpose arena with capacity of 11,000 people, office blocks topped by residential towers, a hotel and a casino. Construction starts in spring 2017.
Hiedanranta is an old pulp factory area that is being built into what the Finnish media called “Dubai of Finland.” The area will offer housing for up to 25,000 residents and jobs for between 12,000 and 14,000 people. Zoning will begin 2017.
As a new form of public transportation in Tampere, a light rail will offer a testing ground for smart mobility solutions, smart building and smart infrastructure solutions. The planners are one final decision away from starting the constructions by the end of 2016.
”Our plan is to open the big challenges of the city and develop innovative solutions to them together with companies,” said Anna-Kaisa Ikonen, Mayor of the City of Tampere.