I am very keen in connecting Serbia with Italy through innovation and digitalization, hoping that a bilateral collaboration on innovation will grow and that the City of Turin will be involved at a urban level as City Lab
Marco Pironti, Deputy Mayor of Turin, in charge of for Innovation, Smart City and ICT Systems, was recently on an official visit to Belgrade. Mr Pironti arrived in Belgrade following the invitation of Confindustria Serbia, which organized the 5G and Enabled Technologies Conference on October 30th. In an interview for our magazine, Mr Pironti talks about aspects of 5G technology that have a beneficial impact on the daily life of Italian cities, touching upon Turin’s experience. He spoke about the cooperation between Serbia and Italy in this field.
Turin has become the first city in Italy to experiment with autonomous driving in an urban context. Can you elaborate on that?
— The city of Turin has been working towards creating and developing the Smart Road initiative, a consortium of public-private organizations interested in the advancement of the research, testing and implementation of autonomous vehicles and above all, future mobility. Since 2018, the city of Turin has been very active in adopting the Smart Road decree, plus there was some experimental testing of autonomous vehicles under the auspices of the Turin City Lab initiative.
How does the Turin Smart City Lab work?
— The Turin City Lab is an open innovation platform which was launched 1 year ago by the city authorities to connect demand and offer of innovation, aiming to maximize the opportunity of enabling value creation from a public-private partnership pool. Under this platform, we have been setting some of the most promising innovation trends for the urban development and smart cities, such an autonomous car, 5G, drones and robotics. The Turin City Lab is also designed to be the best gateway for proposing innovation projects and experimentation to the City of Turin. It is, in fact, possible to submit a proposal of innovation and testing through an open call directly on the website www.torinocitylab. com. Once submitted, a technical committee will meet and evaluate the proposal and give feedback within 60 days.
What can Serbia learn from your experience?
— My recent trip to Serbia has been very positive and has allowed me to meet and talk with Confindustria and the Serbian Innovation Minister. I am very keen on connecting Serbia with Italy through innovation and digitalization, hoping that a bilateral collaboration on innovation will grow and that the City of Turin will be involved at the urban level as City Lab. It would be great if there was a best practice exchange between Serbia and the Turin City Lab.
Smart City Turin works thanks to the 5G network. Can you tell us more about this, given that it is yet to be established in Serbia?
— 5G is recognized as a technology able to boost innovation and smart cities. Turin has launched a process to implement the 5G technology both at institutional level, as well as at citizen level. The City’s role in our vision is to enable experimentation in an urban context, balancing this forefront attitude with careful consideration of citizens’ impact and education. Our 5G approach is supported by several ‘working groups’ which are researching, discussing and evaluating activities on the implementation based on vertical know-how and public-private engagement.