Shaping the urban age
Shaping the urban age
Digital transformation must support better performance and human-centric services, integrated at city-region scale
The Thailand Smart City Expo 2025 offered a concise but revealing snapshot of Southeast Asia’s race toward urban digitalization. While Bangkok showcased its Digital Twin efforts, regional players — from Japan to Taiwan — highlighted competing narratives and standards. Beneath the buzz, fragmented governance and data silos still challenge Thailand’s ability to turn smart city pilots into coherent, scalable systems.
Returning from Expo 2025 Osaka, I joined a full week of sustainability and innovation events in Kuala Lumpur—IGEM, KL Sustainable Summit, and Malaysia–Japan Environment Week—where regional leaders and ERIA partners advanced actionable strategies on energy, circular economy, and urban governance. These engagements underscored ASEAN’s growing capacity to turn sustainability dialogue into measurable impact.
Visiting Expo 2025 Osaka revealed a striking mix of ambition and uncertainty. Beneath the architectural brilliance and corporate optimism, the event reflected Japan’s search for identity between technology and society, and the Global South’s struggle for modern narratives. The Expo stands as a mirror of our times—where spectacle often outshines substance.