Analysts say that within the next four years, a bunch of cities around the world will be transformed into Smart Cities that will ignite the growth of a multi-billion industry from information communication technologies to smartphones.

Market research firm IHS Technology says the business opportunities arising out of Smart City projects worldwide could be worth over   $25 billion.

It says Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, New York, London, Amsterdam, Seoul, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Singapore are most likely to become ‘smart’ before 2020.

Currently, there are 423 Smart City projects in operation that include safety and security, energy and resource efficiency, mobility and transport, physical infrastructure, governance and healthcare.

Analysts say the biggest effort is in the mobility and transport industry, which currently has 110 projects.

Physical infrastructure industry sits on number two with 107 projects, while there are 104 energy and resource efficiency projects. The least amount of projects is in the healthcare industry, a total of 13.

Companies looking for places to kick-start their Smart City initiatives should go either to the United States or the Asia Pacific region, researchers said.

US has the highest number of Smart City projects (91), while the Asia-Pacific region is a key market for Smart City development. This is due to accelerated urbanism and economic growth in the region.