magazinelogo

Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Science

ISSN Print: 2576-0556 Downloads: 1353542 Total View: 9131353
Frequency: monthly ISSN Online: 2576-0548 CODEN: JHASAY
Email: jhass@hillpublisher.com
ArticleOpen Access http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/jhass.2025.08.003

The Performance of Smart City in Asia: A Comparative Study of Singapore and Hong Kong

Jinning Ma

Department of Public and International Affairs, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China.

*Corresponding author: Jinning Ma

Published: August 21,2025

Abstract

Asian smart city initiatives have grown rapidly in recent years. As former members of the Four Asian Tigers, Hong Kong and Singapore have successively launched comprehensive smart city strategic plans, and exhibit high comparability in urban scale, economic development, and technological capacity. However, the outcomes of smart city construction show differences in IMD-STUD Smart City Index 2021, Singapore ranked 1st, while Hong Kong ranked 32nd. This study attempts to investigate this performance gap through developing a conceptual framework that examines two critical dimensions of smart city practices: technology development (ICTs development and technology innovation) and governance structure (smart city leadership and stakeholder engagement). The finding shows that digital information technologies are not powerful as such, their strength in enhancing urban governance depends on the institutional setting in which they are embedded. The Hong Kong SAR Government should establish a dedicated Smart City Leadership Task Force to fully leverage the government’s macro-regulatory capabilities, while emphasizing public co-creation and placing greater focus on data openness and bridging the digital divide.

Keywords

Smart city; Governance structure; Technology development; Digital divide; Urban governance

References

Agency for Science, Technology, and Research (ASTR). (2020). M081331-Research and development expenditure by area of research, annual. 

https://www.tablebuilder.singstat.gov.sg/publicfacing/createDataTable.action?refId=14600

Alawadhi, S., et al. (2012). Building understanding of smart city initiatives. International Conference on Electronic Government, 40-53.

Albino, V., et al. (2015). Smart cities: Definitions, dimensions, performance, and initiatives. The Journal of Urban Technology, 22(1), 3-21.

Anttiroiko, A.-V. (2013). U-cities reshaping our future: Reflections on ubiquitous infrastructure as an enabler of smart urban development. AI & Society, 28(4), 491-507.

Asian Development Bank. (1995). Governance: Sound development management.

Azevedo Guedes, A., et al. (2018). Smart cities: The main drivers for increasing the intelligence of cities. Sustainability, 10(9), 3121.

Batty, M., et al. (2012). Smart cities of the future. The European Physical Journal Special Topics, 214(1), 481-518.

C&SD, Innovation and Technology Commission. (2020). Hong Kong Annual Digest of Statistics-Table 7.3 Funding for research and development, innovation and technology upgrading projects through the Innovation and Technology Fund by technology area (p.193). Hong Kong: C&SD.

C&SD, Science and Technology Statistics Section. (2020). Hong Kong Annual Digest of Statistics-Table 7.1 Research and development (R&D) expenditure (1) by sector and type of expenditure (p. 191). Hong Kong: C&SD.

Census and Statistics Department (C&SD). (2017). Publications of the 2016 Population By-census. Hong Kong: C&SD.

Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA). (2018). Digital economy framework for action. Singapore: IMDA.

Innovation and Technology Bureau (ITB). (2017). Hong Kong Smart City Blueprint. Hong Kong: ITB & Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO).
https://www.smartcity.gov.hk/

Intellectual Property Office of Singapore. (2018). Patents filed in Singapore by country and classification.

https://data.gov.sg/dataset/patents-filed

International Institute for Management Development (IMD). (2021). IMD-SUTD Smart City Index Report (2nd ed.). Lausanne, Switzerland: IMD.
https://www.imd.org/smart-city-observatory/smart-city-index/

International Telecommunication Union (ITU). (2018). Measuring the Information Society Report Volume 2 ICT Coun-try Profiles 2018. Geneva, Switzerland: ITU.
https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Pages/publications/misr2018.aspx

ITU. (2021). The ICT Development Index (IDI): Conceptual framework and methodology.
https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Pages/About.aspx

Lee, J. H., et al. (2014). Towards an effective framework for building smart cities: Lessons from Seoul and San Francisco. Technological Forecasting & Social Change, 89, 80-99.

Ma, R., et al. (2018). Potential pitfalls of smart city development: A study on parking mobile applications (Apps) in Hong Kong. Telematics and Informatics, 35(6), 1580-1592.

Meijer, A. J., & Thaens, M. (2018). Urban technological innovation: Developing and testing a sociotechnical framework for studying smart city projects. Urban Affairs Review, 54(2), 363-387.

Meijer, A., & Bolívar, M. P. R. (2016). Governing the smart city: A review of the literature on smart urban governance. International Review of Administrative Sciences, 82(2), 392-408.

Ministry of Education. (2020). Combined and gross enrolment ratio for primary, secondary & tertiary education.

https://data.gov.sg/dataset/combined-and-gross-enrolment-ratio-for-primary-secondary-tertiary-education

Ministry of Trade and Industry - Department of Statistics. (2019). Mean years of schooling, annual. 

https://data.gov.sg/dataset/mean-years-of-schooling-annual

Nam, T., & Pardo, T. (2011). Smart city as urban innovation. Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance, 185-194.

Paskaleva, K., et al. (2015). Stakeholder engagement in the smart city: Making living labs work. Transforming City Gov-ernments for Successful Smart Cities, 115-145.

Prime Minister’s Office. (2017). Formation of the Smart Nation and Digital Government Group in the Prime Minister’s Office.
https://www.pmo.gov.sg/Newsroom/formation-smart-nation-and-digital-government-group-prime-ministers-office

Singapore Department of Statistics. (2021). M015621-Key data of gross domestic product in chained (2015) dollars, by industry (SSIC 2015 Version 2018), annual. 

https://www.tablebuilder.singstat.gov.sg/publicfacing/createDataTable.action?refId=17167

Smart Government Innovation Lab. (2020). Smart Government Innovation Lab. 

https://www2.smartlab.gov.hk/en/index.xhtml

Smart Nation and Digital Government Office. (2021). Pillars of Smart Nation. 

https://www.smartnation.gov.sg/why-Smart-Nation/pillars-of-smart-nation

Wang, J. (2018). Innovation and government intervention: A comparison of Singapore and Hong Kong. Research Policy, 47(2), 399-412.

Yovanof, G. S., & Hazapis, G. N. (2009). An architectural framework and enabling wireless technologies for digital cities & intelligent urban environments. Wireless Personal Communications, 49(3), 445-463.

How to cite this paper

The Performance of Smart City in Asia: A Comparative Study of Singapore and Hong Kong

How to cite this paper: Jinning Ma. (2025) The Performance of Smart City in Asia: A Comparative Study of Singapore and Hong Kong. Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Science9(8), 1488-1495.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/jhass.2025.08.003