ASEAN, Russia Can Boost Cooperation On Smart Cities By 2025 - Indonesian Ambassador

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Russia have a chance at boosting cooperation in the next five years with a focus on cybersecurity, counterterrorism and smart cities among other areas, Indonesian Ambassador to Russia Mohamad Wahid Supriyadi said in an interview with Sputni

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 12th February, 2020) The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Russia have a chance at boosting cooperation in the next five years with a focus on cybersecurity, counterterrorism and smart cities among other areas, Indonesian Ambassador to Russia Mohamad Wahid Supriyadi said in an interview with Sputnik.

According to the ambassador, the ASEAN plan of action for the 2021-2025 is being formulated at the moment.

"There are a lot of programs that have been materialized, some are ongoing between Russia and ASEAN," Supriyadi said in response to a question about areas in which the ASEAN-Russia cooperation can grow.

Elaborating on these areas, the ambassador listed counterterrorism, cyber security, information technology and disaster relief management.

An area that he specifically highlighted as Russia's expertise to be shared with the ASEAN countries are the smart cities. He said this topic was discussed during the third ASEAN-Russia Summit in Singapore back in 2018.

The incubator of Russia's urban planning innovative projects, with the smart city technologies in the cornerstone, is its capital Moscow. The Moscow government invests in the local IT entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem to produce smart urban technologies that can be imported both across Russia and abroad. In November, Greater Mumbai Municipal Commissar Praveen Pardeshi expressed interest in Moscow's smart city projects, primarily in water purification and public transport.