The International Knowledge Centre for Engineering Sciences and Technology (IKCEST) held a video conference with the Global Island Partnership (GLISPA) to discuss the cooperation between IKCEST Intelligent City Knowledge Service System and GLISPA in the field of Small Island and Developing States (SIDS) on July 2, 2018. Kate Brown, Executive Director of GLISPA, Jessica Robbin, coordinator of GLISPA, Zhang Ye from the IKCEST Secretariat, and Cao Buyang and Qian Tianjian, experts of the Intelligent City Knowledge Service System, attended the meeting.

At the beginning of the meeting, the IKCEST Secretariat gave a brief introduction to the participants, explained the background of previous cooperation between IKCEST and UNESCO in the field of SIDS, and expressed the desire to strengthen IKCEST-GLISPA cooperation within the UNESCO framework and contribute to the capacity-building of SIDS.

After that, Jessica introduced the main background of GLISPA and the work conducted by the organisation: GLISPA is jointly led by the Presidents

of Palau, Marshall Islands and Seychelles, and the Prime Ministers of Grenada and the British Virgin Islands, aiming at establishing a global public platform to promote inter-island cooperation and build sustainable island communities. Since its launch in 2006, GLISPA has raised US$150 million for island-oriented actions with the support of senior leaders and assisted more than 35 countries in initiating or participating in the commitments of sustainable SIDS. GLISPA is committed to working with local governments and relevant institutions to identify policy priorities and help SIDS achieve sustainable development in information technology and other fields. GLISPA plans to establish a framework to promote mutual investment and cooperation among SIDS, and has now explored a successful cooperation model on the Hawaii Islands in the United States. At the same time, GLISPA has also established a data dashboard in Palau to monitor local data and help Palau achieve sustainable development on informatization.

Cao Buyang introduced the data resources and knowledge services available in the Intelligent City Knowledge Service System, especially the Intelligent City Big Data Platform. The platform has collected some 1 billion pieces of data, covering some of the SIDS, which provides decision-making advice for local governments at the ecological, economic, social and other levels. Tongji University (the participating organization of the IKCEST Intelligent City Knowledge Service System) has also launched a data section to help government officials and the public monitor city data with greater convenience. Through data analysis, forecast on future development is provided to prevent potential problems and better achieve sustainable development. At the same time, as a participant in the EU Horizon 2020 project, Tongji University is able to connect the building of smart cities with the building of smart SIDS to facilitate the development of these states.

The two sides also discussed issues such as data collection, China’s island data, joint training and other issues. Jessica invited IKCEST to participate in the relevant international conferences to explore possibilities of cooperation with more experts in the field.

At the end of the meeting, the two sides agreed to maintain contact through email and video conference to work out the model and content of future cooperation.