The agreement was signed in Novo Mesto on Tuesday by representatives of the Municipality of Novo Mesto, national telco Telekom Slovenije and the Ljubljana-based technology company SAP Slovenija.

Mayor Gregor Macedoni said at the signing that it was a pilot project to set up a smart city system, which was a next step in city development as part of solutions provided by the internet.

As part of the project, the partners will develop advanced solutions for air quality measurements, automatic centralised reading of water and energy metres, smart control of public lighting and monitoring of occupancy of public car parks.

The system will also allow the local authorities to get feedback from the residents regarding their satisfaction with the services and solutions.

The system will be connected with the city card system, which will allow the residents of the parter municipalities of Novo Mesto, Nova Gorica and Kranj to use and pay for various services, Macedoni said.

Igor Bohorč of Telekom Slovenije added that the first service, expectedly the monitoring of occupancy of public car parks in Novo Mesto, would be launched in two and a half months at the latest.

Bohorč noted that the telco had decided to implement the pilot project in the town with some 23,000 residents because of its suitable size and the local authorities' openness to innovation.