Hamburg is Germany's smartest city, Bitkom study finds

Commenting on the top scores, Dr. Peter Tschentscher, Mayor of Hamburg, noted: “We are developing our new processes from the user’s point of view and are working jointly with all authorities and revamping administrative processes.” The Bitkom survey highlighted three projects in the Hanseatic city namely Intelligent Transport Systems comprising 60 individual projects such as autonomous bus transport, intelligent parking and co-ordinated building sites to ease traffic. Hamburg is gearing up to host the ITS World Congress in 2021 with the German Ministry of Transport and aims to become a model city and laboratory of intelligent transport and logistics solutions.

The survey also highlighted the Digital First programme, which requires all authorities in Hamburg to provide user-friendly online services by 2022. The Transparency Portal and the Urban Data Platform ranked third and provides access to hundred thousands of documents on transport, the environment, social issues and economics in a single data bank.

“The results of the Bitkom survey are confirmation and an incentive to continue our successful digitalisation course,” said Tschentscher. Digitalisation allows Hamburg to raise the standard of living and to boost its economic attractiveness, the survey found. Methods such as design thinking are being used and involving all relevant actors in companies, administrative departments and civil society. Hamburg is relying on partners in business and science to implement its digitalisation strategy and is collaborates with renowned technology groups and IT start-ups.
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