Turnkey smart solutions integrator Vegacomp Consulting has published the sixth edition of its “Radiography of Smart City Projects in Romania”, and the June 2022 report lists 1001 initiatives at the project stage, under implementation or already completed in 144 large, medium and small cities in the country, compared to 860 projects in 124 cities a year ago.

The document presents 470 Smart City projects completed in Romania so far. Cumulatively, the sector city halls and the General City Hall in Bucharest occupy the first place at national level, with 115 projects. When the capital’s city halls are treated separately, Cluj-Napoca becomes the city in Romania with the highest number of projects – 63 – and climbs to the top 10 Smart Cities, followed by Iasi with 56 projects, Bucharest (at city hall level) with 54 projects.

Alba Iulia, which has dominated the top positions in recent years, drops this year to 4th place, with 49 projects. Sibiu and Bucharest’s Sector 4 follow with 35 projects each. Oradea and Timisoara share sixth place, each with 26 projects, followed by Arad and Slănic Moldova with 25. Next come Bistrita (20), Hârșova (19), and 10th place is occupied by Brașov (18), tied with Botoșani (18).

“In the 2022 report, we see that the current stage of the Smart City concept in Romania has gone beyond the pilot projects phase”, says Cornel Bărbuț, CEO of Vegacomp Consulting. However, cities in Romania are still not moving forward with consistent Smart City projects “primarily due to the lack of competent staff in local and central public administration”, says Cornel Bărbuț. “Without people in town halls especially delegated for Smart City projects, and with City Managers suffocated by administrative tasks, there is no point in having all kinds of funds available. This is why we stress, once again, the need to allocate resources for project management and IT&C (IT and connectivity)”, he adds.

At the level of medium-sized cities, the ranking is led by Alba Iulia (49), Sibiu (35) and Oradea (26), while the podium of small towns is occupied by Hârșova (19), Avrig (14) and Aleșd (10).

The Smart City projects identified are still classified under the same six Smart City verticals – Smart Economy, Smart Mobility, Smart Environment, Smart People, Smart Living and Smart Governance, which are in line with the European Union reports. As in the last edition, the Smart Mobility vertical maintains its leading position and, moreover, increases significantly compared to previous years: in 2020 it included 188 projects, in 2021 no less than 260 projects, reaching in 2022 322 projects mainly focused on the modernization of transport and traffic management.

Smart Governance follows with 238 projects, up from 226 last year, and maintains its second position in the ranking. Smart Living is in third place with 217 projects, up 43 initiatives from 2021. Smart Economy maintains its fourth place, with 130 projects and a slight lead of 31 initiatives.

The last two positions are Smart Environment, with 59 projects, down from 64 in 2021, and Smart People, with only 35 initiatives, down two projects from last year.

“Expression of the efforts at the international level, related to the technologization and modernization of cities, we see that the 6 verticals defined as Smart City pillars are challenged with other projects meant to design ‘spaces’ in our cities, adapted to people, their professions and passions. There is a need for new spaces in our communities: spaces for dialogue, spaces for data (data spaces), spaces for civic initiatives, for art, for spirituality, for various sports and recreation, etc. Concepts such as Art City or Spiritual City are making their presence felt alongside Mega Cities, and in this report we highlight the progress or regression on the road to digitalizing our cities,” adds Bărbuț.

The report is made available in full and free of charge by Vegacomp Consulting. Founded in 2004, Vegacomp Consulting, a turnkey integrator, is based on a team with over 24 years of experience in telecommunications, especially optic fiber networks, in Romania and internationally and focuses its projects on the development of combined telecommunications and energy solutions.