The challenge of cut-and-paste solutions

One narrative about the global market for smart city solutions and urban tech is a hegemonic struggle between American and Chinese corporations. But regions like ASEAN defy such easy understanding, and are likely to remain resistant to straightforward (urban) tech colonization."[N]umerous governments and companies have committed to the EU’s GDPR data protection regulations, both due to rising services trade with Europe as well as to guard against foreign monopolies. At the same time, ASEAN fragmentation makes it difficult for a single outside player to dominate. Telecommunications and banking remain localized. American, Chinese, and Japanese tech companies and banks have a national presence across the region, but eventual integration will also favor trusted regional banks, such as DBS and Maybank, and telecoms, such as Singtel. Even as the region comes together, it will therefore remain a quilted patchwork." This pattern, also observed in Latin America and Africa, suggests that simplistic narratives of urban tech colonization are dramatically overblown, and the buildout of digital urban infrastructure will be a more incremental, bespoke, localized process.