Singapore has smart-city ambitions, and is accelerating up the technological superhighway to achieve this.

But what is a "smart city", and how will Singapore measure its progress at becoming one?

To answer these questions, the Singapore University of Technology and Design's (SUTD) Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities will be working with the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) to create a new system of guidelines which the Republic can use as a benchmark to measure its progress.

The IMD is a business school based in Switzerland.

Called the Smart Cities Index, it aims to provide insight into how cities can be smart by learning from leading cities, SUTD said in a statement yesterday.

The index will also provide recommendations on how a smart city should promote inclusiveness beyond mere deployment of technology.

SUTD provost Chong Tow Chong said: "As smart cities will be the norm in the near future, this index will serve as an effective and well-recognised guide to help improve cities worldwide, through technology and design."

A memorandum of understanding was signed between SUTD and IMD yesterday, marking the launch of the two-year project.

IMD this year introduced a new ranking system in its World Competitive Yearbook.

The ranking system will measure the abilities of economies in adopting and exploring digital technologies.

The yearbook ranks economies based on how competitive they are.

IMD president Jean-Francois Manzoni said: "The collaboration between the IMD and SUTD holds the promise of a very exciting project.

"The Smart Cities Index that will be developed as a result should be the global benchmark in which cities, businesses, citizens and other parts of civil society can find a unique resource to identify best practices, and to design and implement their own strategies for the world of tomorrow."