Transport was the focus of the third annual Kyiv Smart City Forum, held in the Ukrainian capital on Oct. 31, with Kyiv Mayor Vitaly Klitschko on hand to present hi-tech solutions to the city’s perennial traffic problems.
Klitschko gave a 30-minute presentation at the event venue, the luxurious Parkovy conference center, summarizing the city’s biggest achievements over the last year.
The mayor said all public transport vehicles now have a Global Positioning System tracker that allows passengers to plan their trip more effectively, cutting down on waiting times. And the mayor said that starting from Nov. 1, a unified transit pass had been introduced to help the city switch to a cash free fares system.
Chinese electronics corporation Huawei, one of the events sponsors, said it could help improve the city’s traffic flows: It said it has developed a convenient system for use by a municipal enterprise to track the traffic situation and road conditions during bad weather.
Klitschko also said he want to increase the number of security cameras scanning the capital’s streets, in the same way as other major European cities are now widely monitored by CCTV.
Chinese tech company HikVision has already provided the Ukrainian capital with most of its 7,000 security cameras, according to Klitschko.
But the mayor said there was plenty of room for expansion in this area, as major European cities like London or Paris have around 100,000 security cameras, while in China, big cities can have more than a million cameras.
“With the main purchaser always being the government, Ukraine is currently lagging behind,” said Anatoly Storozhko, project manager at HikVision’s official reseller in Ukraine.
Going electric
Among other tech companies attending the forum were Ukrainian Charge Group, a producer of chargers for electric cars, and car-sharing company Sixth Systems.
CEO of Charge Group Yuriy Dmitrishen said there are now over 16,000 electric and hybrid cars in Ukraine, though most of them are in Kyiv.
“There isn’t the necessary infrastructure in Ukraine,” he said. “But there’s a growing demand for electric cars, and we expect a huge rise in demand in Ukraine as well.” Charge Group’s is now mainly focused on the Polish market.
“Countries in Europe, especially in the Netherlands, have invested heavily in renewable energy, with over 36,000 electric chargers deployed on the streets of Dutch cities,” Dmitrishen added. “Ukraine has huge potential, and if we take the same path we can become Europe’s China – with cheap and good quality chargers.”
However, the head of Sixth Systems Oleksiy Sakhov said he wasn’t sure if his company would launch its car-sharing business in Ukraine due to concerns over profitability. He sees the EU market as a lot more promising.
“In Berlin we partnered with BMW dealerships, providing them with cars (for car-sharing) and us providing full back-end (logistics) development,” said Volodymyr Dashkevych, project manager at Sixth Systems.
“In Kyiv our main rivals, taxis, are cheap, thus making car sharing non-profitable,” he said.
The Smart City project started back in 2015 with the goal of bringing together local startups, international tech companies and potential buyers. This year’s event featured 50 speakers on three different stages, including Dmitro Sholomko, head of Google Ukraine and Walter Fust, head of the African Investment Fund, as headliners.
The non-governmental organization Smart City Hub organized the event in partnership with financial services company VISA and sponsors Lenovo, Huawei, HikVision, HP, ELKO, ERC, Lantec and E EKTA.
