Using Public Private Partnership models in smart cities - proposal for Croatia

How smart is a “smart city”? According to Asian examples of newly growing smart cities, usage of technology can improve life standard and reduce cost of living, improve operational efficiency, environmental sustainability, eco-friendly infrastructure, smart technology Internet of Things (IoT), smart living and direct citizen participation in decision making process. Learning, adaptation and innovation could be the future for Croatian cities by using all mentioned, which will improve social, regulatory and safety indicators for designing a better living environment for Croatian citizens. While using Public Private Partnership (PPP) models, crowdsourcing and democratic ecologies which provide better and more efficient public services by taking advantage of private sector's “know-how”, cities will create long-term investment opportunities and sustain real time optimization strategies by providing safe and reliable place to invest. The intention of this paper is to show how the (local) government's role in PPP projects is to evaluate and approve detailed execution plans of the concessionaire while the private partner's role is to design, build, finance, and operate the facilities. In futuro, digital technologies offer numerous possibilities for citizen participation in decision making at local and regional government level.