BrazilVINT Consult supporting Belarusia's smart city ambition for Minsk
MotoVeloZavod, a well-known Belarusian bicycle factory, is working together with consultants from VINT Consult on the design and implementation of a range of smart city projects in Minsk.
The partnership is part of Minsk’s ambitions to become a smart city, an urban area that uses technologies and intelligent digitisation to manage assets and resources more efficiently. New York for instance has applied smart sensors in its streets in order to address street lighting efficiency, London uses systems to monitor water quality and conservation, while Paris has embraced technology to optimise its garbage collection and waste management. All with the goal of improving the living environment for its inhabitants as well as the business landscape for entrepreneurs and companies.
In late 2018 the President of the Republic of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, outlined his plans for transforming the country’s capital Minsk into a smart city, in a move which kick-started a range of initiatives in the public and private sphere.
Minsk-based MotoVeloZavod has been handed a major role in the ambition. The company, founded shortly after the end of World War II, on November 6, 1945, is a manufacturer of bicycles and motorbikes. Leveraging its background and expertise in the transport sector, MotoVeloZavod has been appointed a public partner of the ‘Smart City Minsk’ programme office.
Turning Minsk into a ‘bike city’ is one of the pillars of the broader shift – with the policy-makers of Belarus’ capital having been inspired by bike-friendly and tech-savvy cities such as Amsterdam and Copenhagen. Together with VINT Consult, a local consulting firm, MotoVeloZavod will lead the design of an improved infrastructure for cyclists, supporting broader mobility goals, as well as the development of new innovative bicycles that meet future demands.
The cooperation agreement between the public-private partners, inked on March 11, extends far further however. The two Minsk-based companies will collaborate to lead the implementation of the ‘Smart City Minsk’ from a joint command centre. Among others, the following goals have been set:
- Smart Tourist – creating a mobile application for visitors to Minsk using augmented reality technology and fintech.
- Smart Citizen – automation of city life, including: movement around the city, food, administrative procedures, emergency assistance.
- Universal Entrepreneurial Platform – a platform to facilitate supporting business process and the process of attracting investment.
- Smart Infrastructure – the creation of high-tech elements of the usual urban infrastructure: smart stops, smart traffic lights, smart kiosks, etc.
- Digitisation of buildings – creation of an electronic database on the blockchain on engineering networks and other elements of buildings with a description of those characteristics and responsible contractors.
- Smart Investor – creating opportunities for foreign investors to invest through the Universal Entrepreneurial Platform, as well as in smart infrastructure.
As part of its role, VINT Consult will provide financial and economic consultancy on the programme and initiatives. The consulting firm will also play a role in establishing a financial ecosystem of investors and partners, and support in the building of a partner network for execution. “We will tap into our partner network of providers of software and hardware solutions, marketing agencies, law firms, and experts in finance, construction, real estate, small business support, health care and social security,” explained Timofey Polomannyy from VINT Consult.
