What transformations does Kyiv need?

Information technology simplifies many things. Certificates and medical prescriptions might be set up to be issued online. Computers can manage traffic and procurement for the city. This would save time and money, and this also hampers corruption, as the details of any transaction could be checked online. With electronic innovations the city becomes “smart.”

“The Smart City is a broad concept that includes many elements from various spheres of urban life: utilities, sports grounds, medicine, education,” says Ihor Nikonov, Deputy Head of Kyiv City State Administration, curator of Kyiv Smart City. “Similar projects exist in many cities, but in some respects we are ahead of them all, because we look into the 22nd century.”

Different people – community leaders, high-ranked officials, representatives of the IT sector, business persons – have teamed up to develop a system of urban management which use the information technology to full extent. The funds are drawn both from the city budget and from investors. Each week, Kyiv Smart City team reports on their achievements. This article is dedicated to their principal developments. Note that the links to already active initiatives of Kyiv Smart City can be found at the Kyiv City State Administration website, in the “e-city” section.

THE OPEN BUDGET

This development already allows analyzing the implementation of the city budget. Moreover, it can be summarized not only by region – specific data is attainable for schools, hospitals, and other public institutions. One is able not only to check the costs and revenues of the city, but also to compare them with that of similar institutions. For example, is there a reason for vastly different expenses on energy between these two schools? Maybe someone handles the available resources carelessly? Or should a school be insulated better? The Open Budget will give a lot of interesting information for analysis.

THE ELECTRONIC PROCUREMENT

The project officially started on July 28. As of October 20 it secured 2,404 successful acts of procurement totaling to 117 million hryvnias. Moreover, it helped save another 17 million hryvnias. The site of Kyiv City Administration offers the statistics on procurement and all the related documents. Olena Vasylets, Head of Electronic procurement project for Kyiv Smart City describes the process as follows: “We call the desired purchase and determine its initial value. Then we set up the auction step and wait for the proposals, which can be submitted before the auction starts. Trades are held in three rounds. The system determines the potential winner after the third round based on the lowest price offered. Then the bidders are checked against all the requirements manually, and the winner is announced.”

THE URBAN CADASTRE

This option lets you determine whether a construction or an ugly advertisement near your house is legitimate. All construction sites and promotional items in Kyiv have been added to the registry, and the status of any such object can be seen online. If the object is marked green – everything is normal in terms of permits, if it’s red – we have a problem. The suspicious building is not necessarily illegal, but there might be some documents missing. The legal status of the construction is important to check when buying an apartment – a place to live in the “red” building might be risky. There is also an option to report an unauthorized construction or illegal advertising – Kyiv authorities are obliged to visit the location and check the status of the object.

By the way, another resource has a similar registry on the communal property. Everything owned by the Kyiv City State Administration comprises a single database. Any resident of Kyiv can check what the city has, what of that has been leased, and what is available for rent or purchase.

THE E-SERVICES

Overall, 21 different services are available on a dedicated web portal – and many more are planned to have been made available online by the organizers. Once logged in to the website by a payment card or the Kyiv Resident Card, a person can order and receive a service via the Internet. For example, one can arrange a subsidy for communal services. The electronic approach saves a lot of time and makes the relations between the community and officials more transparent.

THE SMART TRANSPORT SCHEME

This large-scale project has been under development for nine months with the assistance from the World Bank. The previous transport scheme for the capital was created several decades ago, and it is considerably outdated now. The new model allows to add the planned facilities in real time, showing the traffic flow and the route effectiveness. “We have a huge number of routes that are duplicated. People lose up to 10-15 minutes in changing the means of transportation,” says Nikonov. “We have studied the traffic flow – it is the most important thing. We can see who is going where, and how they do it. We now alter the routing, and the changes have been made to the Master Plan draft, which is still to be considered. Mathematical calculations show that Kyiv can do without traffic jams. For this we must adopt a law on the parking lots and tighten the responsibility for unauthorized parking on the streets.”

THE PARTICIPATORY BUDGET

Kyiv residents can influence the expenses of the city in 2016. The online platform will hold an open debate on the budget draft – so the people will show where they want their money to be invested. Several areas and subareas will be offered on industries, financed by the city. Every resident of Kyiv, entering the minimum amount of personal information for identification, will be able to vote for what they consider the most appropriate funding effort. The officials of Kyiv City Council will analyze the survey results and will take them into account when approving the city budget.

THE ELECTRONIC PETITIONS

Imagine a person which has an important proposal to the authorities – for example, a historic building they want to be preserved. On a special website, which will be opened in a couple of days, this person will be able to initiate the e-petition. If ten thousand people in the Internet sign it within 90 days, officials are required to consider it at the next meeting of the City Council and post a response. The response will also be sent to the poster directly.

THE UNIFIED CONTROL CENTER

The initiative is planned for 2016, all the necessary requirements are already met. Every passenger vehicle, regardless of ownership, will have the GPS-navigator linked to the unified system. License agreement between the vehicle owner and the Kyiv authorities will determine the schedule, the frequency of repairs, etc. According to the Kyiv Smart City team, the marshrutka driver will no longer be able to linger at the bus stop and pull time until the car is full. The unified control center will limit the deviations from the route. The licenses of drivers who violate the agreement would be withheld.

The database of the control center will include every vehicle of communal services. One will be able to assess the effectiveness of their work: when the garbage is taken, which streets are kept clean, etc.

THE ELECTRONIC PRESCRIPTION

When the patient comes to the doctor, they are identified by the Kyiv Resident Card and the electronic prescription is created for them. In the pharmacy, the prescription is read from the card, and the medicine is administered. As a parallel system, prescriptions on paper with bar codes are also planned. The Electronic Prescription service is going to be introduced this autumn for people dependent on insulin. By the end of the year the project will be up and running for all patients.

The problem is that the legislation of Ukraine lacks the concept of electronic prescription. “The City Council will decide on the concept of e-prescription on the next voting session, but our citizens will also have to carry by them a piece of paper with the prescription. We are now negotiating with the Ministry of Health – and they promise to abandon that regulation,” says Yurii Nazarov, adviser to the Mayor of Kyiv, project manager of Kyiv Smart City. “We don’t expect everyone will want to use the new system. But we will anyway get a unified electronic database of recipes, patients, and medicine.”

By the end of the year, the Kyiv Smart City team is going to introduce the “E-registry” project in one test district. This will mean that people in a hospital would be identified by the same Kyiv Resident Card, and their medical history, tests, and recommendations will be seen immediately.

THE AFTERTASTE

Kyiv Smart City projects often refer to the Kyiv Resident Card. The project initiators advise that all citizens of the capital should have such a document. This is an electronic plastic card, which contains the personal information about the owner and is supported by programs related to the social support, information services, and various other benefits. The document is available for those who are registered in Kyiv, who are working or studying here, and for the displaced persons from the ATO area.

Other cities of Ukraine also want to be “smart.” Kyiv Smart City team shares its experience with Lviv and Vinnytsia. Something “smart” is also happening in Odesa. “Everything we do is a never-seen-before experience in Ukraine, and we gladly share it,” asserts Nazarov.

Information technology might greatly simplify the life in Kyiv. But the process should be bilateral. People will have to make an effort in order to learn how the new resources function. And mechanisms such as electronic petitions or the participatory budget work only when citizens regularly offer something to the authorities, be it written and signed request or the vote for the budget allocation. In any case, only we ourselves can make our lives more comfortable.