The Ipswich City Council has finalised an Australian-first partnership with the Netherlands on a global smart city project to support innovation hubs.

An Australian-first agreement has been finalised between Ipswich City Council and the Netherlands to fast-track smart city strategies.

This initiative enables the sharing of smart city strategies between Ipswich and five Dutch cities. These are Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht, The Hague and Eindhoven.

Ipswich mayor Paul Pisasale and chair of a Global Smart Cities and Communities Coalition, Bram Reinders, signed off this agreement.

Reinders said the Ipswich agreement was an Australian first. Similar agreements have been signed with Chicago, Austin, Charlotte and Indonesia.

“A stepping stone model means Ipswich can innovate a project to one level, Austin Texas can take it to the next level and the Netherlands can continue the process,” noted Reinders.

“In that model, even if you fail you never fail 100 per cent. There is always something to learn. Innovation is not always measured by success, you measure by experience.”

Cr Pisasale said Ipswich is on track to being Australia’s most prosperous and liveable smart city. The city’s infrastructure is built around digitally-connected platforms.

He said the Netherlands has long been seen as the world standard in this field. “The Amsterdam Smart City program is home to more than 1,615 innovators, start-ups and corporates.”

Ipswich is part of a global 2017 Smart21 theme. This is built around a nascent, but expanding internet-of-cities model.

In other news, Ipswich launched an emergency management dashboard.  This dashboard provides a single point of information for emergency information, while pooling information from different agencies.

This data includes weather warnings, road condition updates, power outage reports, river heights and emergency contacts.

Track digital innovations at the FST Government Queensland Conference on Thursday, March 16. Click here for more information.