Penang to form umbrella body for the coordination of smart city initiatives

GEORGE TOWN (Sept 6): Penang is pushing ahead with its smart city initiatives with the planned formation of an “umbrella body” called Digital Penang Corporation (DPC).

The corporation will coordinate the various endeavours in meeting the state’s smart city goals.

“Now these initiatives are being implemented by different agencies, by the public works committee under Zairil Khir Johari, by the respective local councils, so we need to streamline all these efforts and put it under one umbrella body,” he local government, housing and town and country planning committee chairman Jagdeep Singh Deo (pictured) told the media at the the launch of a pilot smart bus stop project here yesterday, reported The Malay Mail.

Jagdeep said that even though the Penang exco had already approved the formation of PDC “several months ago”, it would still need “a new enactment to be legislated by state lawmakers”.

“We hope to table it for approval at the Penang legislative assembly in November, but if we can’t make it in time, we will look at other ways to set it up first,” he said.

Jagdeep explained that the DPC’s role is to “tie together” Penang’s smart city projects and “serve as a hub for the various agencies implementing such projects”.

“We hope to take our smart city initiatives to a higher level through the DPC,” the newsportal reported him saying.