Finnish city partners with local technology firm to achieve smart city ambition
Published on 5th Jan 2016
The Finnish city of Turku is working with technology company Teleste to jointly develop smart solutions for the city environment.
The city has set a goal of developing both its own operations and also the whole city environment in line with smart city principles. It will work with Teleste to establish which products, applications and services connected with the smart city concept could be cooperatively developed in the Turku region by the private and public sector.
Ultimately, the city hopes to develop a range of functional technologies in the areas of: safe and pleasant living environment; energy and cost savings; applications for optimising passenger traffic; traffic flow and traffic applications; self-determined housing for the elderly; and new kinds of learning environments.
Teleste will act as a technical cooperation partner and will be researching, developing and piloting various smart city products, applications and services.
“In order to develop smart and sustainable solutions, there needs to be close cooperation between businesses and the city,” said Mayor of Turku, Aleksi Randell. “The city’s active involvement in solution implementation is important for businesses, as it helps them develop successful products and provides them with references for internationalisation. At the same time, the innovations developed are visible in residents’ daily lives as improved services.”
Teleste’s managing director, Jukka Rinnevaara, said that this first-of-its-kind project provides a great opportunity to research how to harness digital solutions for the benefit of cities and their residents.
“The challenges for urban environments, both now and in the future, include how to boost safety and well-being, how to effectively manage resources, and how to develop different kinds of innovative services,” Rinnevaara explained. “We are very happy that we can look for solutions to these questions, and especially that we can do it right here on our home turf in Turku.”
