The deputy mayor of Kiev (Ukraine), Petro Olenych, has defended that «even in emergency situations» cities can develop and boost digitalization, and explained how the municipal information app for Digital Kiev citizens has been adapted in times of war.
This is what he said this Tuesday in Barcelona, in the opening speech of the User Centri Cities 2022 congress, organized by the Generalitat, UserCentriCities and The Lisbon Council, where he explained that in Kiev for five years there has been a team dedicated to developing this tool to offer services to citizens in a simple way.
Olenych explained that the development of this app began with transport services, parking services and to buy public transport tickets, which «made it easier for citizens» to move around the city, and said that it was very well received by the residents of Kiev.
He also explained that this application generated confidence in the citizens, who sent their opinions about it, which led them to be able to apply it to make votes, for example to change the name of a street, a consultation that he assures that he got the response of «6 million citizens».
BOMB INFORMATION With the outbreak of the war, the deputy mayor has assured that they had to change «in a very short time» the services offered by the application and develop a completely different tool.
«On February 25 we started testing and in two days the app worked perfectly and reported on the bomb attacks,» Olenych stressed, adding that the goal was to develop a space to communicate information that citizens could trust about the war and how it affected the city’s services.
He welcomed the fact that citizens were able to use the application and the information provided to them «to save their lives», as he warned that during the war there are many websites that publish false information.
Olenych explained that they are using the app «not only for civilians, but in war», so it also provides information to the military as well as to civilians, and suggested that all cities integrate this type of information because it can also serve for other types of emergencies, not only for war.
The app gives instructions on where citizens should go and how to act in emergencies and how to act in case of bomb attacks, is updated daily, and also serves to provide information on businesses such as pharmacies and how to obtain medicines.
He assured that they are very proud of how the app has worked, although he regretted that they had «many cyber-attacks on the infrastructure and digital services» of Kiev, something that he considers has allowed them to know how to manage this type of attacks now.
