Solving Transportation Issues by MaaS Technology and Creating Future Possibilities with Multinational Partnerships.

CHALLENGE

Promoting a new business to solve transportation issues in Jakarta, Indonesia, with an understanding of the current situation.

Up to now, Nippon Koei has been in charge of many overseas Official Development Assistance (ODA) projects, following the business flow which has continued since the era of the founder, Yutaka Kubota, who was called the "father of overseas technical cooperation". However, in recent years, development methods and options for developing countries have been multiple, making it difficult to demonstrate competitiveness with conventional approaches. Therefore, we have begun to create new businesses with an eye on the next generation while inheriting the spirit of our founding.

In the current trend, "environmental problems" can be cited as one of the issues with a particularly high need to solve. It can be approached from various angles, but we, who have been engaged in urban development and infrastructure construction, have found great potential for commercialization in providing services from the perspective of transportation to solve this problem. We have started a project in Jakarta, Indonesia using big data to improve convenience, alleviate traffic congestion, and reduce exhaust emissions to solve environmental problems.

For Nippon Koei, Jakarta, Indonesia is a place with very deep ties. The Jakarta Mass Rapid Transit (MRT North-South Line), which opened in March 2019, is one of our achievements. The theme of this project was to alleviate traffic congestion, but as someone who has deep knowledge of the local area, we are bringing in ideas that have been pushed further and are working with various partners and cooperating companies to create new transportation in Jakarta. The times are changing from a car-centered society to a people-centered society. Worldwide , the trend is toward the introduction of electric vehicles and measures to reduce the number of car owned. What is required of next-generation cities is, above all, sustainability.

SOLUTION

Creating urban transportation infrastructure using big data from MaaS.

The concept of MaaS, an acronym for "Mobility as a Service", has spread around the world since the demonstration experiment that started in Finland in 2016. Until then, information dissemination, reservations, and payments, which used to be independent for each transport operator, were centralized. Users pay a fixed monthly fee, and a total solution that includes not only railroads and buses, but also cabs, shared bicycles, and all other means of transportation, is seamlessly provided on their smartphones. As a result, countries around the world have begun to consider MaaS positively, which can alleviate traffic congestion and reduce environmental impact through traffic optimization. Jakarta, with its severe traffic congestion, is one of the major cities in need of urgent countermeasures, and by adopting the concept of MaaS, Nippon Koei is engaged in a project that aims to solve various issues related to urban transportation.

The partnerships that we formed to advance our business include local platformers and system integrators. The task of extracting the necessary one from a huge amount of data while protecting personal information and adding value to the data to solve customer problems is the domain of experts. At Nippon Koei, we are in charge of providing new value using the big data organized by partner companies. The expected customers are public authorities that will implement measures backed by value-added data, as well as private companies such as real estate and transportation operators. In the past, we spent a year or two conducting surveys, predicting the situation 30 years in the future, and formulating plans for 10 to 20 years. But now, information is accumulated and analyzed in real time, speed is required above all else. For that reason, it is also our role to skillfully take consistency between existing mechanisms, software and new technology. As we proceeded with our business while fusing new technologies, for example, we were able to simulate heavy rains and unexpected accidents, even though in the past we could only see annual trends in forecasting. A custom-made method that combines MaaS technology and the uniqueness of Jakarta is now in progress.

POINT

Our advantage lies in our neutral position and diversity, in addition to extensive experience and solid technical capabilities.

A wide variety of players are gathering in the business of solving problems using big data. You may find many telecommunications companies and IT-related companies, but Nippon Koei is a company that different from those companies. The advantage of Nippon Koei's consulting background in the upstream process is that we can find out the optimal technologies and most suitable partner companies from a neutral standpoint without any bindings. In other words, it is possible to propose measures necessary for Jakarta City in an environment with almost no business restrictions. In addition, from our long history of working with developing countries and emerging countries in the field of overseas technical cooperation, we have accumulated ideas and responsiveness that other companies do not have.

Nippon Koei's Singapore office is spearheading this project in Jakarta, and the merits of having a base in the country, which is known as the melting pot of races, are clearly evident. In a global open innovation environment, we have created new technologies and business models while involving many people regardless of whether they are inside or outside the company. As of the summer of 2022, the members who are mainly involved in this project are from seven different countries. Members and partner companies with diverse backgrounds bring their own values and technologies to the project, which has inevitably led to the creation of a world-class business. We have a wide variety of human resources, including a MaaS founder in Finland, a former CEO of a MaaS startup in Singapore, and a data scientist with knowledge of IT solutions in the UK. We have a system in place that allows us to verify our own ideas from multiple perspectives while combining our respective areas of expertise.

The motto that has been adopted by the team is "Think globally, Act locally," which is part of Nippon Koei's long-term strategy. When the project started, the members struggled because Nippon Koei was not well known. The company name, which seemed to be a brand in overseas technical cooperation projects, was unknown outside the ecosystem of international cooperation projects, and the promotion started from scratch. Nevertheless, the reason why we have been able to keep running so far is because of the strong desire of each of us to realize a smart city. We have also been able to pursue what our value is in order to satisfy the citizens while thinking globally.

Nippon Koei will continue to create "next-generation businesses that are needed " so that the people living in these areas can enjoy a more comfortable life.