On May 27, FGV Projetos held the seminar ?Cidades Inteligentes: Financiamento, Governança e Planejamento? (Smart Cities: Funding, Governance and Planning) in Rio de Janeiro ? attended by representatives from City Councils, development agencies and public and private institutions so as to stimulate and facilitate the debate on the funding and management models for smart city projects.The debates were attended by state representative Aspásia Camargo, the Mayor of Angra dos Reis, Conceição Rabha, Niterói's secretary of urbanism and urban mobility Verena Andreatta, Búzios' secretary of planning, Alice Passeri, the Chief Operating Officer of Rio de Janeiro's Operations Center, Pedro Junqueira, among other authorities and experts.Cesar Cunha Campos, director of FGV Projetos, started the event warning about the accelerated urbanization process in Brazil, which has already brought negative impacts, such as traffic jams and high level of urban violence. ?In this realm, the concept of smart city becomes key when proposing the integrated use of information and communication with the urban system. As a result, the city optimizes its basic functions, increases its competitiveness and quality of life?, stated Campos.Then Carlos Augusto Costa, Market Deputy Director at FGV Projetos, introduced the main results of the perception research made by the unit in 64 cities with more than 200 thousand inhabitants, in 21 different states. According to him, less than half of the people  interviewed is familiar with the idea of ?smart city? and the lack of qualified labor is one of the main barriers for the implementation of activities pertaining to the sector ? which is reinforced by Conceição Rabha's testimonial, who criticized the lack of technical background in the municipal governments.Alice Passeri presented the city's reality, which relies on a team that is proportionally smaller than demand. ?We are close to chaos, 180 kilometers from Rio de Janeiro. Such initiatives by FGV, going to satellite cities and extending participation, eventually make the population to push the government and accomplish results?, she said.On the other hand, Pedro Junqueira presented the positive aspects of Rio de Janeiro's Operations Center, giving details of the integration with different types of technology available, such as GPS devices in the means of public transport and even participative applications like Waze, which provides data on transit and accidents.Cadernos FGV Projetos no 24: Smart Cities and Urban MobilityCadernos FGV Projetos no 24: Smart Cities and Urban Mobility was also launched at that moment, which includes a testimonials by Aspásia Camargo, an article by Pedro Junqueira and an interview with Enrique Peñalosa ? former Mayor of Bogotá, responsible for the implementation of the transport systems known as TransMilenio.Click here and download the publication (in Portuguese).