弗雷德里克·杜·普莱西斯，现居阿联酋迪拜，是一位全球商业领袖、国际战略家，在能源、化学、生命科学、战略咨询及经济发展等诸多领域拥有超过30年的全球领导经验，目前于欧洲工商管理学院和伦敦商学院教授战略学。

Frederick du Plessis, a Dubai-based global business leader and international strategist, has over 30 years of wide-ranging global leadership experience across energy, chemicals, life sciences, strategy consulting, and economic development. Frederick has taught strategy at INSEAD and the London Business School.　

高大伟：教授，我知道你非常了解中国，尤其是天津。你也了解世界智能大会这个非常重要的平台，它主要的议题之一是“智慧城市”。教授，我们如何让全世界都不断意识到建设智慧城市的必要性呢？

弗雷德里克：大伟，这是一个非常有意思的问题，因为这个过程并不是自然发生的。我认为，我们所需要的是智慧城市成功的实践案例，人们能够看到智慧城市的好处，不管是给市政管理者带来的益处，还是最为重要的，给城市居民带来的益处。一旦人们切实感受到了效益，我想我们就会看到向智慧城市转型的浪潮。

高大伟：是的。这关乎民生，因为智慧城市是为市民服务的。当然，智慧城市也必须是可持续发展和宜居的，正如你所说，离不开民生和治理，但智慧城市也离不开科技，而你是这方面的专家。你担心“技术不平等”成为全球普遍存在的问题吗？

弗雷德里克：我担心。这是我们必须认真思考的重要问题。因为如果我们认为智慧城市只属于富有国家或者科技发达的国家，那么我们就可能错失推动新兴经济体发展的重大机遇。

在一些地区，比如非洲，非洲人口会在未来十年、二十年里大幅增长，可能会成为世界上人口最多的地区，甚至东南亚一些国家也是如此，它们并不是最富裕的国家，对于这类超大城市而言，智慧城市的建设就极为重要了，我们已经在中国看到了几个人口上千万的超大城市。

为了让城市正常运作，我们需要落实智慧城市的概念，5G网络将整座城市连接在一起，互联互通、信息、决策、人工智能、深度学习算法、机器学习算法，这些都能够帮助城市更好地运作。

如果一个国家因为贫富差距而出现了技术鸿沟，那么我们可能就遇到真正的困难了，如果非洲未来没有5G、6G，甚至6G+网络，如何让那些有2000万或者2500万人口的城市智能地运作呢？所以，我认为技术不平等是一个大问题。

我认为云技术不是一个大问题，因为云资源在全球各地都可以访问，但仍然需要快速稳定的宽带连接，而且需要移动接入，通过每个人口袋或手里的设备就能访问，不能只是为了服务那些总部设立在城市的富有企业，而是确保每一个普通人都可以通过自己的移动设备获取云资源。从这个角度看，我认为不平等问题可能会严重导致智慧城市领域出现“双速”世界，这会是一个问题，也将是一大遗憾。

高大伟：非常感谢。世界智能大会是一个国际盛会，中国的角色非常突出，因为这个会议是在天津举行的，而且中国在建设智慧城市方面非常成功。我们看到欧洲和美国都在采取举措，也非常感谢你提到非洲。我们必须确保通过正确的途径，帮助非洲建设更智慧的城市。教授，感谢你的真知灼见。

弗雷德里克：谢谢，高教授。

David：Professor, I know you know China very well and Tianjin in particular. And you know this very important platform, the World Intelligence Congress, which is about, among other things, "smart city". Professor, how do we increase the awareness of the necessity to build smart cities across the planet?

Frederick：David, this is really an interesting question, because this process doesn't happen naturally. And I think what we need is very fine examples of successful smart cities that are working in practice, where people can see the benefits, the benefits to the municipalities, or the management of the city, and the benefit most importantly to the inhabitants of those cities. Once people begin to see that, I think we will see a wave of transformation to more smart cities.

David: Exactly. So, it's about the people, because we are building the smart cities for the people. Of course, a smart city is about sustainability, livability, this is what you are saying about the people, about governance, but it is also about technology, and you are an expert in this field, professor. Do you worry about what we could call "tech inequalities" seen globally?

Frederick: Yes, I think this is a really great consideration that we need to take into account. Because if we think that today, smart cities may be only the place or the opportunity for the wealthy nations, or the technologically capable nations, then we might be missing out on a very big opportunity to improve the emerging economies in the world.

And if we think the places, areas, a continent like Africa, where we can see a very large population growth rate in the next 10 years, 20 years, probably the largest in the world, and we think even maybe in countries, some countries in Southeast Asia, who are not perhaps the wealthiest countries, smart cities are extremely important when you get to this kind of mega cities, which we've already seen in China, several mega cities of over 10 million people.

And to just make that city work, you need a smart city concept where everything is integrated across a 5G network, this connectivity, this information, this decision making, this AI or Artificial Intelligence, deep learning, machine learning algorithms that help the city work in a better way.

And if you are in a country where the technology gap exists because of the wealth gap, then we might have real difficulties, if we don't have 5G or 6G, or even 6G plus in the future in Africa, how are we going to enable cities that have 20, maybe 25 million people in a smart way? So, I think the tech inequality becomes a big issue.

I think cloud isn't such a big problem, because the cloud is accessible globally. But then you still need a very strong broadband connection, and that needs to be mobile. It needs to be in everybody's pocket, in everybody's hand, not just for the wealthy corporations who have their headquarters in these cities. It needs to be with a man in the street. The person in the street needs to be able to access it through their mobile device. And this is where I think inequality could play quite a big role in a two -speed way of developing smart cities, which would be a problem, would be a pity.

David: Thank you very much. Of course, the World Intelligence Congress is an international event. China is very present because it is taking place in Tianjin, and you know that China is very successful in building smart cities. We see things moving in Europe, in the US, but thank you so much for bringing Africa on the table. We need to make sure that we have the right approach for also the African continent to build smarter cities. Thank you very much, professor, for your insights.

Frederick: Thank you, Professor Gosset.