In a ranking created by IESE Business School Center for Globalization and Strategy of the University of Navarra, Spain, denominated “Cities in Motion”, and particularly in the “Smartest City” Index (part of this ranking) San José, Costa Rica ranks in the lower end of the table reaching position 150 among 180 cities.

The Cities in Motion Index (CIMI) evaluates a total of 66 indicators divided in the following key dimensions: Human Capital; Social Cohesion Indicators, Economic Indicators, Public Management, Governance, Environmental, Mobility and Transportation Indicators; Urban Planning; International Outreach and Technology Indicators; this last dimension, the technology indicators, allows to determine the “smartest” cities.

According to this indicator, the world’s smartest city is Taipei; “Taipei (Taiwan) is the city at the pinnacle of this ranking. This city achieves good levels in all the indicators and stands out especially for the percentage of broadband users in the city, the number of Facebook users per capita, and the number of mobile phones per capita. Of the cities that occupy the top 10 positions, there are six Asian cities and three U.S. cities”.

“A city that has fallen behind technologically has comparative disadvantages in respect to others, in terms of security, education or health – all aspects fundamental to the sustainability of a society – and from the perspective of a productive system”, states the report.

The top five “smartest cities” index is completed by: New York, Baltimore, Seoul and Tokyo.

When it comes to Latin America, Mexico City was the highest ranked achieving position 73.

In the general CIMI ranking New York, London and Paris take the first three positions while San José, Costa Rica ranks 112 and Buenos Aires, Argentina is the best ranked in Latin America.