The City of Chicago, the Global Cities Business Alliance (GCBA) and MasterCard recently entered into an agreement to enhance the city’s digital infrastructure.
“As a global technology company that’s working with major cities around the world, MasterCard understands the economic, social and environmental challenges stemming from rapid urbanization,” Hany Fam, executive vice president of MasterCard Enterprise Partnerships, said. ”We applaud the City of Chicago for pioneering a ‘living lab,’ as an optimized interaction between cities and their tech sectors can help drive inclusive growth and a better quality of life.”
The agreement stipulates that the city will identify specific projects for assessment, build connections to local partnerships and engage relevant technical and business subject matter experts. MasterCard will define the evaluation model and lead data collection from projects identified by the city.
Additionally, the GCBA will act to improve the dialogue between businesses and the city. GCBA said it plans to expand the pilot project to other global cities in the coming years with the assistance of its partners.
“Our research on city-business engagement and discussions at our recent symposium have shown this to be a challenge for many cities,” Lesley Saville, chief executive of the GCBA, said. Our partners are committed to working with cities to develop new ideas and new ways of working to ensure cities continue to thrive.”