Digital maturity of the local authority
What does the city mean by “smart city”?
For Bizerte, a smart city would use “digital or all tech to make the lives of our people easy”, and be a city that was clean and modern.
Ideas of the smart city in Bizerte go beyond simply using smart technology. They describe a situation where technology has changed what the city looks like and how it acts.
“Our theme is to make the city more clean: happiness with the cleanliness level, coordination with the people, [to] make the most of our waste in terms of transferring it to energy, and a way to optimise it, powered by renewable energy.“
Dr. Ben Amara Kamel, Mayor of Bizerte
What relevant projects have been done to date?
Bizerte does not currently have a digital transformation plan. The city’s ambitions are currently focused by the national Smart City programme for Tunisia. Member- ship for the programme requires the eventual production of a local Programmatic Master Plan, which can evolve over the next 30 years.
Bizerte has been recognised as the leading city in the Tunisian Smart City programme. It has subsequently hosted two Bizerte Smart City international conferences, in 2017 and 2018.
The city has also been recognised for its work in the United for Smart Sustainable Cities Initiative (U4SSC), for implementing key performance indicators in their planning towards the Sustainable Development Goals.
e-Government Services
The Municipality of Bizerte uses digital tools across many areas of work, including a system for financial budgeting, electronic mail, and use of an administrative system called ZEMBRA.
Recently, there has also been cooperation with four computer science students in the implementation of a free application for citizens to calculate their municipal tax online.
Transport
The city authority has given support to the implementation of a mobile application by two young people, that gives information on the lifting times of the mobile bridge of Bizerte.
Waste management
In March 2020 a competition was launched to develop mobile applications on the theme of city cleanliness, with the Career and Skills Certification Centre (4C) of the Higher Institute of Technological Studies of Bizerte (ISET).
Partnering with cities for urban waste management
From Bizerte, a team of elected officials and the Director of Cleanliness (propreté) made a visit to the French city of Dunkirk in order to learn from their experience with Points d’Apports Volontaires (PAV), or Voluntary Contribution Points. This led to the creation of 49 voluntary contribution points in the city, with technical support from the Urban Community of Dunkirk.Additionally, Bizerte is partnering with the city of Rostock, Germany, for the creation of a composting unit in the city.
What are the plans for the future?
Data management
Bizerte plans to use its old strategic position in new ways. For example, underneath the city are military bunker networks that date from the Second World War, which can be used as data centres. Because all fibre cables for the country pass through Bizerte, the city is currently discussing an infrastructure plan with the city of Marseille for Bizerte to be a central data store.
Renewable energy
The Bizerte region is receiving significant investment in wind power which the local authority anticipates will increase.
Waste Management
The city authority has begun to put GPS trackers on their waste disposal vehicles. Alongside this activity will be the creation of an application which maps waste collection circuits by geolocation. This project will be based on the My Route function of Google Maps.
How would you rate your capacity to conduct a digitisation project? 4/ 5
Reasons given:
• IT skills, especially management of existing applications related to the functioning of the municipality
• Maintenance and development of the computer network, maintenance of computer equipment
Data gathered from a questionnaire shared with all cities in Phase 1.
