Thread: Japan-Thailand Millennium Town plans to foster a smarter community

The planned smart city outside Thai capital Bangkok promises to use Japanese retirees to educate local people, as well as have futuristic technology .

A new kind of smart city is being planned in Thailand, with new-age technology like maglev trains being developed alongside educational campaigns, all to elevate the country's economy and quality of life.
The Japan-Thailand Millennium Town is the brainchild of officials at Global City Development, a Thai-based social enterprise firm that develops international mega-projects. It was officially unveiled at the Smart Cities New York conference earlier this month.
Set to be built 40 miles outside Thai capital Bangkok, organizers hope for a population of 20,000 in the 475-acre city, which will have separate zones for residential and commercial areas. Pannaritsara Chuenjitrabhiramon, chairman and CEO at Global City Development and a former United Nations (UN) official, said the idea has been in the planning stages for around 20 years and is in keeping with Agenda 21, the UN’s goals for sustainable development.

It is inspired in part by King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who died in 2016 after having "devoted all his life to human development," Chuenjitrabhiramon said. During his more than 70-year reign, he was viewed by many Thai people as a unifying figure — despite decades of rule by military juntas — dedicated to the welfare of his people.
The new smart city will be populated with Japanese retirees, who Global City Development senior advisor Robin Lewis said are often forced into retirement under rigid labor laws when they have plenty more to give.
"People are at the height of their powers, and social scientists are all agonizing over what the aging of the global population is going to do to the labor force, because they're looking at the input of young people in the labor force and how that's diminishing, but nobody's thinking about raising productivity at the other end of the labor force with people whose talents are still usable," he told Smart Cities Dive in an interview.
Features of the Japan-Thailand Millennium Town


Those retirees will be brought to the Millennium Town and put to work on various projects, including helping the local population and educating them in a mutually beneficial setting. And it represents another aspect of the strong ties between Japan and Thailand, including economically.
"Here, we're talking about training people, we're talking about passing on knowledge and know-how to the locals,” Chuenjitrabhiramon said. "So you need to understand the locals' weaknesses and strengths, and you also need to understand the weaknesses and strengths of the people we want to bring in."
And that, the organizers said, is what will make the Millennium Town different from other planned smart cities, which in recent years has included the likes of Tempe, AZ and the planned Gramercy District in Ashburn, VA. Too often, they said, not enough attention is paid to educating and engaging with the people and is instead more focused on new technology. "That's the mistake that a lot of new cities have made," Lewis said. "Suddenly this thing pops up and it's all very modern and all very nice, but it has no relationship to people living 100 yards away."

https://www.smartcitiesdive.com/news/japan-thailand-millennium-town-smarter-community/525239/

Originally Posted by Chittychangchang

helping the local population and educating them

You can lead a horse to water but you can not teach a Thai who already knows how to pollute and double park not to.


So, Millenium Smart city.
Underground cables, proper engineered drainage, water reticulation good enough to drink from the tap, strict regulation on where a shop can set up, strict enforcement of traffic and parking, strict rules on keeping footpaths clear, accessibility for wheelchairs in all public places, animal control, draconian anti-littering enforcement, CCTV system that actually works when a government official breaks the law and not just when peasants do, strict building regulations, .... Golly, they're going to need to have a non-Thai city administration and enforcement officers too.

Good idea, can't work.

A hiso oasis for those rich enough to escape a fast sinking capital city

Seems there’s a lot of dosh in devoting all one’s life to human development.

^ You mean teaching 'human development' in the Thai education system?

There is, but the budget rarely gets that far.

Just another scheme to suck money out of foreigners. This time retired Japanese people?

Originally Posted by cyrille

Seems there’s a lot of dosh in devoting all one’s life to human development.

...in which some might consider a term of contradiction.

Originally Posted by VocalNeal

to suck money out of foreigners

The Thai people will be on the hook for the losses, not long the forgotten "expenses paid" ex-politicians, whether the money comes from the Thai purse or borrowed from foreign "investors".