Nabil Fahmy: Building Smart City is Vital for the Global South and I would like to See the Next Smart City Report Including more Cities from the Global South

Keynote speeches

Nabil Fahmy, Former Foreign Minister of Egypt 

First of all, I would like to thank you very much for inviting me to participate in this important conference on digitalization and economic development 2023!

I come from Egypt, a country in the global south, with ambitious goals in this respect. And if I may say, a reasonable success story where our industry in this regard has grown the fastest in terms of its export value, in comparison to others in my country. That being said, we have more ambitious plans; we are building twelve new cities simultaneously, including a new capital with significant Chinese support both in construction and in this industry in particular, but much more needs to be done.We have a reasonably well educated labor force that has promoted the sector in particular. But to achieve the goals that we have, and that you mentioned in your two studies,

interconnectivity of Urban communities, enhanced government services, as well as enhanced information technology, much more needs to be done by way of connectivity, hardware assets, and also by way of education to reach all levels of our community and make them take advantage of this industry in particular.

I also agree with your reports in that we need to work together to prevent an increasing divide between the north and the south or between the digitalized and those less advanced, but also to prevent a divide between digitalization and artificial intelligence.

I noticed that in your studies, you focused on the success stories, the most successful cities in this respect, and also the results of the G20 in particular. I'd recommend that, as you move forward, and we are happy to work with you in this respect, you also expand your scope to include the global community more comprehensively, and to come up with suggested recommendations on how the global south, or if you want, the less advanced in this regard, can get on the development train in this respect.

It's important for us, whether it is from my country in the middle east and in Africa or globally, to increase our regional and global connectivity. So we need to work together and come up with solutions that serve all of our purposes. As I said, I applaud you for the reports, but I urge you to do more. And I offer you a message of support, from the global south, from Egypt in particular.

Have a good conference, and I look forward to reading the results of your work.

Thank you!