RKCI is a program that has been running since 2015 and continues to be implemented every two years. The 2021 RKCI activities, including seminar series and research events, will be held for four months, from August to November 2021. Some of which are Indonesia Geosmart 2021 and the 8th International Conference ICT for Smart Society (ICISS) attended by more than 80 speakers from 4 continents. For example, Prof. Carlo Ratti of MIT, Prof. Benjamin Koo from Tsinghua University, and Prof. Toshio Obi of Waseda University.

As a response to the Indonesia digitalization development to improve smart cities in Indonesia, RKCI is merged with RTDI this year. The events will be carried out for four months containing various scientific activities.

In his remarks, the Vice President of the Republic of Indonesia Ma'ruf Amin expressed his appreciation to ITB for providing innovative works as a form of intellectual contribution to the advancement of digital transformation in the country, mainly related to the digitalization of urban governance in Indonesia. "Hopefully, this activity will not only serve as a ranking but can also support the increase of the community's life quality in a sustainable manner," the Vice President of the Republic of Indonesia said.

At the Opening of the 2021 RDTI and RKCI, Prof. Dr. Ir. Suhono H. Supangkat, as Head of the Center for Smart City and Community (PIKKC) ITB, said that before Covid-19 spread throughout Indonesia, we were faced with the problem of massive urbanization. According to his data, at least 70 percent of Indonesia's population lives in urban areas.

"Even though RKCI has been held for 6 years, there has been no city in Indonesia that has met the smart criteria," said Prof. Suhono.

This fact is regrettable because, in this century, the development of various sectors is intensively transformed. For this reason, as a first step in responding to this, Indonesia also needs to comprehensively intensify digitalization progress. Increased attention to the transformation towards a smart city this year is carried out through a cultural change.

In response to this, of course, ITB is not just hands-off. As an institution with a technology background, ITB plays a vital role in realizing one of the big dreams of Indonesia Gold 2045.

"We also want to help out by doing something following our competence in the field of research to help the government in dealing with the regular problem," Prof. Reini stated in her speech.

In this webinar, Prof. Reini also said ITB has played a role through research on smart cities. Then, the Minister of National Development Planning/National Development Planning Agency delivered a presentation about smart city development planning and digital transformation. Digital transformation, he said, is part of the redesign of Indonesia's economic transformation that is inclusive and sustainable.

"Smart city is not just a smart city. Its people also need to have high discipline," Dr. Suharso said.

PIKKC, in collaboration with others, has conceptualized two work steps: the Garuda Smart City and the Garuda Digital Transformation Framework. The works of ITB were directly appreciated by the Vice President of the Republic of Indonesia.

Reporter: Lukman Ali (Mechanical Engineering, 2020) and Diah Rachmawati
Translator: Zahra Annisa Fitri (Urban and Regional Planning, 2019)