SIGNIFICANCE OF SMART CITIES IN 21 ST CENTURY FROM AN INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

Globally, cities account for as many as 80% of the nine billion people inhabiting the earth.
These cities will have an enormous impact on our environment and economy. It therefore appears essential that the world itself decide how these cities are to be organized in ways that satisfy mankind’s future needs for survival and growth. In doing so, cities need to be technologically and environmentally sound, economically prosperous and socially just. Such cities will also rely increasingly on the ‘Internet of Things’. This will permit and strongly encourage, smart cities to make more effective a genuinely integrated world business environment, as well as a global trading systems. The future city will not only influence on society, but will also impacts a wider global environments and economies. This paper is directed to explore and discuss the significance and new opportunities of smart cities in international businesses to face the challenges of the 21st Century.