Nairobi misses out on 2015 intelligent city list
Nairobi has for the second time missed out of the finalists in the annual intelligent city list.
The Kenyan capital, which was shortlisted among the top 21 cities earlier in the year, was the only African city in the list that is compiled annually by the Intelligent Community Forum.
The forum describes an intelligent community as “those which have – whether through crisis or foresight – come to understand the enormous challenges of the broadband economy, and have taken conscious steps to create an economy capable of prospering in it.”
After rigorous shortlisting done on January 22, the seven finalists were; Arlington County-Virginia, USA, Columbus-Ohio, USA, Ipswich-Queensland, Australia, Mitchell-South Dakota, USA, New Taipei City, Taiwan, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Surrey, British Columbia, Canada.
According to the forum, the finalists were selected based on five indicators that determine a community’s competitiveness and point to its success in what the Intelligent Community Forum calls “The Broadband Economy.”
Nairobi had been selected among the smart 21 cities in 2014 and 2015 but never made it to the finalists cities both years.