Opinion feature by Dr. Winnie Tang, Honorary Professor, Department of Computer Science, University of Hong Kong:

Acquiring foreign talent is proved to be a shortcut to promote social and economic development of a place. The United States being well known as the melting pot of various nationalities is a typical example in this respect.

International engineering, design and advisory company Aurecon reaffirmed its commitment to building a multi-faceted engineering consultancy business in Greater China with the appointment of two industry veterans, Fredrick Leong and Kam Tim (KT) Lee as Executive Director, Environmental - Greater China and Technical Director – Electrical respectively in February 2020.

Dr. Renato de Castro an esteemed and respected International advisor for World e-Governments Organization of Cities & Local Governments (WeGo), has shared three intriguing 'Smart Cities' predictions in a paper entitled Smart City: Disruptions and Predictions.

Online spending in China has increased by 32 percent per year in the last five years, reaching $967 billion in 2016, according to a new report by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), which explores what makes China's rapid internet growth unique - and how foreign companies can crack vibrant digital markets.

On Tuesday, the pioneering cryptocurrency platform announced that Enjin’s ENJ Coin has been addedto their Wallet & Card App alongside bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), Binance Coin (BNB) and XRP.

On May 15, 2017, Ericsson signed an MoU with China Mobile's Government and Enterprise Customers Branch and Mobike for a smart travel partnership under the "Belt and Road" framework. The partnership is a response to the government's call for green travel and the "Belt and Road" initiative which aims to improve the overall service level of smart travel and drive the global collaboration and development of the bicycle-sharing industry.

A team of smart city experts have issued a stark warning to many Asian countries currently embarking on a mission to make its cities 'smart'. They have warned that many are at risk of creating 'stupid cities' because of its current approach - which is to work in 'isolation' and resist technological innovation.

The rise of emerging information-related technology and its ubiquity pose a very serious concern: how much privacy do we really have? There have been growing concerns about the pace at which governments and regulators are modernizing their legal systems and how they simply do not change fast enough to keep up with new inventions and innovations of the hyper-digital world we live in today.

E-Agriculture is an up and coming area in the digital age which could affect farmers, businesses, economies, regulators and operators. This is an exciting time for traditional industries like agriculture, to leverage the benefits posed by emerging tech.

A survey shows that over the past two years, 9 in 10 critical infrastructure providers have been hit by 2 or more cyber attacks. A majority of the cyber attack victims have had their environments damaged, leaving their systems out of action, after at least one attack.

PLDT, NTT Communications, PCCW Global, SoftBank, Facebook and Amazon have selected TE SubCom to install a high-capacity transpacific cable system scheduled to launch in 2020. TE SubCom, a TE Connectivity Ltd. Company, is an industry pioneer in undersea communications technology.

Nokia and FAW Group signed an MoU to pursue a research project on smart connected cars, industrial IoT, digital transformation and smart manufacturing.

Nokia has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with St Luke's Eldercare (SLEC) to co-develop and conceptualize innovative solutions for the elderly. As part of the MoU, Nokia and SLEC are trialing Asia's first fall prediction video analytics application.

Panasonic Corporation and Toyota Motors Corporation have joined forces to combine their expertise in the home appliance and mobility sectors along with IoT to create smarter homes and lifestyles for their customers.

The FTTH Council Asia Pacific crowned Singapore as the city with the most advanced Fibre-to-the-Home coverage in the region.

A public consultation has been launched by Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) to determine the suitable regulatory framework needed for 5G technology in order to start deploying the technology by 2020.

Singapore's Singtel is launching in phases, near-gigabit speeds on its LTE-Advanced network at selected high-traffic outdoor locations across the island. At 800Mbps, it is Southeast Asia's fastest Gigabit-class LTE mobile data peak speed, delivering up to 60 percent faster download speeds than prevailing LTE services.

SK Telecom has signed a series of deals in an effort to provide support for startups focused on smart city innovation in the region.

SK Telecom, South Korea's largest telecommunications provider, announced that it has successfully developed a 5G repeater, a means of boosting 5G signals, and applied it to its 5G trial network deployed near Gangnam Station in Seoul.

The global smart traffic camera market size is poised for remarkable growth, projected to reach USD 32.34 billion by 2030, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14.6% from 2021 to 2030, according to Allied Market Research.