Kitakyushu City and WingArc1st Sign Collaboration Agreement, "The Kitakyushu Model": Restarting Growth through Data Utilization
WingArc1st Inc.
On 4 July, Kitakyushu City, Fukuoka Prefecture, and WingArc1st Inc. signed a collaboration agreement with the aim of creating a regional model for data utilization.
■Background
Kitakyushu City has been actively promoting digital and environmental initiatives, including winning the first Nikkei Municipal DX Award Grand Prize in 2022 and the Prime Minister's Prize at the summer digital Koshien held in the same year, as well as being selected as an SDGs Future City by the government and integrating next-generation energy.
WingArc1st's corporate vision is "Empower Data, Innovate the Business, Shape the Future". We have been helping companies improve their business efficiency and business performance for many years. In 2020, we concluded a partnership agreement with Giravanz Kitakyushu Corporation, which plays in the Japan Professional Soccer League. On June 23, 2021, Kitakyushu City, Giravanz Kitakyushu, and WingArc1st concluded a collaboration agreement to improve players' performance through sports technology. In 2022, we have been promoting initiatives in the area of data utilization with the City of Kitakyushu, including a demonstration experiment on online applications for public facilities in Kitakyushu City to verify the digitization of administrative procedures.
The purpose of this new agreement is to build the Kitakyushu Model, a regional development model originating in Kitakyushu City that solves regional issues by combining Kitakyushu City's strengths in digital and environmental initiatives and WingArc1st's strengths in data utilization and the ecosystem it has cultivated.
Taking advantage of this agreement, WingArc1st will establish a regional creation laboratory in Kitakyushu City to serve as a demonstration base, opening an office in July and planning to make a full-scale entry into the area in April 2024. In the future, we aim to hire 30 people to work at the regional creation laboratory over the next three years. We expect to expand our business by developing The Kitakyushu Model, which was established through the demonstration at the Regional Creation Laboratory, throughout Japan.
Specific demonstrations will include:
(1) Establishment of a DX companion support scheme based on management data in Kitakyushu City (utilization of BanSo, a support platform for SMEs)
(2) Establishment of a decarbonization management support model for SMEs (EcoNiPass service)
(3) GX (Green Transformation) technology of an overseas start-up company in Kitakyushu
(4) Promotion of digitization of administrative procedures
■Cooperation items
1．Items related to expansion into Kitakyushu City
2．Items related to promotion of comprehensive cooperation
2-1. Items related to DX/GX promotion of local companies
2-2. Items related to start-up support and attracting businesses to the region
2-3. Items related to promotion of digital administration and improvement of employee digital skills
■The following is an endorsement by the Mayor of Kitakyushu in conjunction with this collaboration:
I am happy and humbled to have signed this agreement. I have been working daily in the city government with a desire to break out of the stereotypes, to make this city better, to draw out the potential of Kitakyushu City, and to achieve a reboot toward growth. I would like to take this collaboration as an opportunity to work together with WingArc1st to overcome the challenges of this city and deliver a city where people can make money, where young people have high expectations and dreams, and where companies can choose Kitakyushu City, and to strongly support the reboot of Kitakyushu City toward growth. The challenges facing Kitakyushu are common to all municipalities in Japan. We hope that the Kitakyushu Model, a successful model of problem solving created in Kitakyushu City, will be deployed nationwide to change Japan. We will work together with the public and private sectors to ensure that WingArc1st's choice of Kitakyushu City was not a mistake.
Kazuhisa Takeuchi, Mayor of Kitakyushu City
Contact on Products and Services:
WingArc1st Inc.
Roppongi Grand Tower, 3-2-1 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo106-0032, Japan
TEL : 81-3-5962-7300
FAX : 81-3-5962-7301
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