Abstract:

There are two widely used “smart” concepts, often considered synonymous with one another - “smart city” and “smart specialisation”. On the city level, they are oriented towards the concept of a “smart city”, which originally developed around the Information and Communication Technology infrastructure as a means to connect cities and thus promote opportunity for development. The smart specialisation strategy is aimed to focus limited resources to promote innovation in knowledge-based industries, which have the largest growth potential for the whole economy. Latvian smart specialisation strategy is a strategy of economic transformation. The aim of the study was to evaluate the indicators of smart specialisation in the Riga planning region (RPR). The authors set the following tasks: 1) to analyse the strategic aims and opportunities of smart specialisation by evaluating strategic data on innovative businesses in Latvia; 2) to evaluate the effect of smart specialisation and economic indicators on the income of RPR municipalities. Research methods: document analysis, statistical data analysis. Main results and findings. There is an empiric relation between development of smart specialisation and smart cities. Smart development is a multidimensional term including aspects of sustainable economic growth as well as sustainable city / regional development, based on the advantages of sustainable competition. It is a way to improve the overall quality of life. The concepts of smart cities and smart development allows us to use the term “smart development”, based on knowledge and innovation (smart city) and strategy to increase the capacity of local competitiveness (smart specialisation).