The panel discussion titled “Digital Economy and Digital Transformation of Cities” concluded the Lider conference “Smart Cities” held at the Vatroslav Lisinski Hall in Zagreb.
– Cities are the ones that can drive the digital economy. It is important for cities to have some kind of community, meaning specialized areas within the city that will function as a mini cosmos for the implementation of ideas. Special attention should be paid to security and protection, which are one of the main features of the quality of smart cities – stated Slavko Vidović, director and founder of InfoDom Group, adding that without a smart environment, there is no smart system.
The director of the Development Agency Zagreb, Frane Šesnić, stated that there is no digital economy without infrastructure, primarily referring to telecommunications. We are also lagging in terms of broadband internet access. Once we resolve that, education awaits us, and we need to follow the trends of the virtual economy, believes Šesnić. Mladen Šimunac from Micra shares a similar opinion. The further you move away from urban areas, the weaker the internet signal becomes. It is not functional there, and you cannot do any developmental or export work. People in those areas are crying out for knowledge, but everyone avoids them, he warns. Hrvoje Hadžić, manager for innovation, strategy, and business development at Ericsson Nikola Tesla, believes that the problem is that cities lack funds, while IT infrastructure has become widely available, meaning anyone can create a solution, which in translation means that many are opting for small segmented closed solutions, which, according to Hadžić, is not a good option at all.
