OHK designed a study tour to offer Egyptian officials insights into international business practices in building and managing new cities in the 21st century. The 2-week long tour was aimed at offering participants access to municipal leaders in Asia, exploring how the latter have built Singapore and Kuala Lumpur into sustainable urban centers and Putrajaya as a “smart” government center. Through a series of government department visits and workshops with central and state government officials, the Egyptian participants learned firsthand about policies and institutional instruments governing new city developments in Malaysia and Singapore.

The Egyptian participants’ exposure to Asian smart city initiatives is expected to help Egypt navigate its own urban growth. To this end, we brought together leading experts from Malaysia and Singapore to explain city standards and best practices of building a smart city blueprint, enabling a sustainable ecosystem, engaging citizens, and designing citizen-centric smart services. Topics included smart cities, public-private partnerships, renewable energy, water supply, waste management, traffic management, power demand, urban mobility, ICT connectivity, and e-governance.