Klojen (malangkota.go.id) – The Malang City Government (Pemkot) participated in the Phase I Evaluation of the Implementation of the 2023 Smart City Program held by the Ministry of Communication and Informatics (Kemenkominfo) virtually from the Ngalam Command Center (NCC) room at Malang City Hall, Monday (12/6/2023). This evaluation itself is a continuation of the previous evaluation conducted in 2022.
Regional Secretary (Sekda) of Malang City, Erik Setyo Santoso, ST, MT who leads the Smart City team of Malang City expressed his appreciation to all parties who have worked hard to realize the implementation of the Smart City program in Malang City. "I express my appreciation and gratitude to all parties who in the midst of their respective busy routines can still maximize their efforts in preparing this evaluation," he said.
In his presentation to the assessor team, Regional Secretary Erik conveyed the achievements of Malang City in quick wins which is divided into six pillars in the Smart City program, starting from Smart Government, Smart Branding, Smart Economy, Smart Society, Smart Living, and Smart Environment. In addition, various supporting aspects towards a Smart City are also explained, such as policies, institutions, infrastructure, and the implementation of the six dimensions of Malang Smart City.
From these achievements, Erik revealed that Malang City will continue to strengthen policies in supporting the Smart City program. "Malang City continues to strengthen policies to support smart cities. Since the launch of the master plan in 2020, the Smart City Council and team have actively coordinated and synergized starting from Focus Group Discussions (FGD), coordination meetings, and also collaboration with academics," he explained.
Regarding the assessment of the assessor team, Erik revealed that there are several notes that need to be considered by Malang City in preparing for the next evaluation. Among the assessors' concerns are strengthening policies, activating the Malang Creative Center, waste management at the Supit Urang TPA, implementing the Si Apel and JDIH applications, and most importantly providing supporting data on Malang City's achievements.
"More detailed supporting data needs to be prepared so that when explaining when asked about changes, it will be easier, there are measurable numbers from how much to how much, doing what for what reason, so that we can differentiate and see the targets and results," explained Erik.
Supporting the statement of the Regional Secretary of Malang City, the Head of the Communication and Informatics Service (Diskominfo) of Malang City, M. Nur Widianto, S.Sos stated that his party would prepare supporting data in preparing for the next evaluation.
According to him, in this evaluation, the assessor team generally appreciated the steps taken by the Malang City Government. However, some supporting data is needed in order to measure the progress of the implementation of Smart City in Malang City. It is hoped that with the presentation of achievements and complete supporting evidence, it will be able to increase the smart city index of Malang City, which last year was measured at 2,95 and was ranked seventh out of all participants evaluated from all over Indonesia in 2022.
"But of course the Malang City Government will not stop there. We will follow up on aspects ranging from Smart Government to Environment that have not been achieved in accordance with the quick wins that have been set in the masterplans including strengthening the implementation policy of various supporting programs and integration of a number of applications," he explained again.
The man who is familiarly called Wiwit also hopes that Malang City, which is one of 191 cities/regencies in Indonesia that is recommended by the assessor team to carry out the Evaluation of the Implementation of the Movement Towards Smart City for the 2017-2022 period, is able to make Smart City an approach that can support the achievement of the development agenda, and is able to integrate various aspects in building a smart city.
"So smart city is not about applications, but how the city is built in a smart way, stakeholder involvement, program integration and not just applications, how to effectively and efficiently use the budget, build good branding for the city and society, improve the economy and environment in smart and sustainable ways," he concluded. (iu/yon)
