ASEAN Australia Smart Cities Trust Fund

22/12/2025

As we wrap up and put a bow on this trust fund, we would like to give you this parting gift: the 𝗔𝗔𝗦𝗖𝗧𝗙 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗥𝗼𝗼𝗺 in Development Asia. 🎁 This new one-stop shop has all our knowledge from developing smart solutions for people-centric smart cities. Think flyers, reports, webinars, articles, and more—plus our new project data sheets, thematic brochures, and videos, covering our various partner cities in Southeast Asia. ✨

Visit the AASCTF Data Room here ➡ https://tinyurl.com/AASCTF

From the Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Asian Development Bank, and Ramboll, thank you for all the support these past years!

16/12/2025

Incoming ADB Vice-President HK Yu was formerly the Australia in The Philippines Ambassador who we were delighted to have worked with during the implementation of our project in Baguio. Ms. Yu visited the Sadjap water level station, one of the 10 stations constructed as part of the Baguio City Smart Flood Warning, Information & Mitigation System Project. During her visit, then Ambassador Yu unveiled a commemorative plaque acknowledging the 🇵🇭🇦🇺 partners who are working together to build a smart and inclusive flood early warning system that will help enhance Baguio's resilience to flooding and strengthen its community disaster preparedness.

For more on her visit in 2023, please check our previous post: https://www.facebook.com/aasctf/posts/pfbid02TWVx7t7mV9njLeBLhZCHDMiB8hgdQBcMHFziVPLEoZqVmuRFeFCFo6gmgwDv3gTzl

Baguio City Public Information Office

ADB welcomes Hae Kyong “HK” Yu as its new Vice-President for Administration and Corporate Management.

Ms Yu brings over 30 years of expertise in international relations, economic policy, and strategic governance. Most recently, she served as Australian Ambassador to the Philippines, where she strengthened bilateral ties and managed a $60 million annual development programme.

She will succeed Bruce Gosper, whose term ends on 31 January 2026.

Read the full announcement here: https://ow.ly/M4YN50XI3RN

20/11/2025

Becoming a smart city is a commitment to livability. ✨ AASCTF was recently in Penang (Malaysia) to reconnect with Majlis Bandaraya Pulau Pinang - MBPP and Majlis Bandaraya Seberang Perai and support the sustainment of the micro-simulation model developed. This will help advance the planning of sustainable and inclusive transport interventions that cater to the people of George Town, the capital of Penang. 🇲🇾

Over two days, the AASCTF team provided an advanced refresher training for the model and software to empower MBPP staff with reviewing transport impacts from planned developments. The team also collaborated with MBPP to understand their challenges and needs to further mainstream the use of the model.

AASCTF was heartened to learn that MBPP now requests submissions of models for large-scale developments from developers as part of applying for permissions.

Thanks to the support of the Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (with the Australian High Commission in Malaysia), Asian Development Bank, and Ramboll, people-centered smart solutions are now being integrated and used in partner cities!

To learn more about our work in Penang, watch this video ⬇

07/11/2025

Sabaidee! That's 'hello' in Lao! 👋 AASCTF was back in Luang Prabang this week as part of its five-city sustainment series under the trust fund's final stretch. Our sustainment focus entails going back to five of our partner cities — Hue, Makassar, Baguio, Penang, and Luang Prabang — to check back with the local governments and assess the impacts of our interventions and provide further assistance to enable them to scale up and pursue further smart city development.

In Luang Prabang 🇱🇦, various government departments showed their long-standing plans (and determination!) to improve services, for both the rising number of tourists and their citizens, all in service of their vision for a "livable heritage city for all". Through several scoping consultations and site visits, the AASCTF team uncovered potential projects that build or add on to the recommendations from the previously supported Luang Prabang Smart and Integrated Urban Strategy, as well as existing plans and studies. Some of these, such as improving water quality of the wetlands and integration of nature-based solutions are also under a developing ADB-financed investment, the Urban Environment Improvement Investment Project.

Through this visit, aside from sharing additional recommendations, the trust fund hopes to unlock partnerships and funding opportunities that can bring the city government's plans to life—driving growth while staying true to their heritage. ✨

ADB Lao PDR Australia in Laos

31/10/2025

People are at the heart of smart cities. 💙 This , we celebrate people-centered smart cities, recognizing that digital solutions should be anchored on people's needs, addressing the challenges they face daily, and providing them with a better quality of life.

In this story from the field, it's a trip down memory lane when we visited Davao City in the Philippines in early 2023 to conduct a demonstration of the bus driving simulator technology.

Mary Grace, one of the 44 jeepney drivers who attended (along with government officials, ADB representatives, and the media), recalls how she started with driving tricycles back in the day, then moved to jeepneys, and later owning one, becoming a jeepney operator. Mary Grace knows the difficulty of traffic jams in Davao City, and how fares can be expensive for ordinary folks. She hopes to become a bus driver some day, under the ADB-financed Davao Public Transport Modernization Project (or the High Priority Bus System). She says, "Change is a good thing, because if you are ready for changes, you can practice being flexible in every aspect."

For her, testing the bus driving simulator was "a big help". "Even if it is not a real bus, it feels like you’re driving an actual bus. It helps with knowing how to handle a bus."

Learn more about how AASCTF supported the City Government of Davao toward achieving a people-centered smart city here:
🔹 https://youtu.be/psxGjlkSyQ0?si=vzW-PkOPMJBtxpgJ
🔹 https://events.development.asia/materials/20240124/aasctf-davao-city-project-flyer-advancing-ambitious-public-transport-program

Happy World Cities Day! 🎉

22/10/2025

Convening partnerships rounds out our three impact areas, following activating place and empowering people. 🤝 Exemplified by the collaboration behind AASCTF – Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Asian Development Bank, and Ramboll – convening partnerships through our work is breaking silos, inclusion, sharing expertise, mentorship, and leveraging investments, to ultimately amplify impact, even long after the trust fund.

See more of the work from a few of these moments in our past annual report: https://events.development.asia/materials/20230703/aasctf-annual-progress-report-2022

15/10/2025

Empowering people is what we strive to do. In Baguio City 🇵🇭, with support from Australia in The Philippines and ADB Philippines, we developed a flood early warning system that is designed to serve everyone, especially the most vulnerable.

From building the capacity of the city government to ensuring residents have the means to be resilient in the face of flooding, here are 5 key steps to make the flood early warning system truly inclusive.

Watch our video ➡ https://www.adb.org/news/videos/empowering-resilience-baguio-s-journey-gender-inclusive-flood-early-warning-systems

Baguio City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office Baguio City Public Information Office

AASCTF’s Baguio City Flood Early Warning System Project is implementing a gender-transformative approach to help bring the City of Baguio one step closer to realizing an inclusive, gender- and socially transformative FEWS for their city.

08/10/2025

AASCTF seeks to create impact in 3 key ways:
1️⃣ activating place,
2️⃣ empowering people, and
3️⃣ convening partnerships.

In activating place, we unleash a city's potential by giving them the smart tools and using data to create inclusive and resilient spaces with a strong identity, to enable vibrant urban growth for the long term.

Thanks to the support of the Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Asian Development Bank, and Ramboll, see some of our work with ASEAN cities here ⬇️ https://www.ramboll.com/en-apac/insights/resilient-societies-and-liveability/optimising-data-for-urban-development-in-emerging-economies-can-unlock-smart-liveable-and-equitable-cities

01/10/2025

We're back! 👋🏼 From starting with the promise of smart cities to unlocking the potential of ASEAN cities, AASCTF continues its support with solutions that put people first.

begins today, and it's the perfect way to kickoff our final run until end of the year. Together with the Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Asian Development Bank, and Ramboll, we'll reconnect with our partner cities and ensure that our interventions create lasting impact.

Check how it started: https://adb.exposure.co/the-promise-of-smart-cities
And how it's going: https://events.development.asia/materials/20210526/aasctf-introduction-flyer