The Smart Cities Index of the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) ranked the smartest cities in the Middle East this year with Cairo amongst the top ten.
The list measured how committed these cities were towards becoming smart and sustainable, and evaluated their efforts to improve the level of well-being for its citizens.
According to the classification, the city of Cairo ranked ninth in the Middle East in terms of intelligence and sustainability and 108th globally.
This comes as part of Egypt’s Vision 2030 strategy which seeks to achieve comprehensive sustainable development in all fields, and localize them within various Egyptian state agencies.
Additionally, it reflects the three dimensions of sustainable development: the economic dimension, the social dimension, and the environmental dimension.
The city of Muscat in Oman came in eighth place, ranking 96th globally, and at seventh place is Medina in Saudi Arabia, 85th place globally.
Doha city in Qatar came in sixth place, 59th place worldwide.
Saudi Arabia appeared multiple times with the city of Jeddah in fifth place, 56th globally, and Mecca in fourth place, occupying 52nd place globally, and in third place Riyadh city, occupying 30th place globally.
The UAE topped the list securing the first and second ranks.
Dubai came in second place while ranking 17th globally. Abu Dhabi topped the list as the smartest city in the Middle East, occupying 13th place worldwide.
This index covered more than 200 cities, the IMD explained, and ranked facets such as including artificial intelligence to enhance telemedicine, green transformation, e-mobility and the digital economy, the impact of smart technologies on their cities, and achieving a balance between economic and technological aspects with human factors.
The index seeks to evaluate how technology contributes to improving the quality of life for residents, and highlight a human-centered approach to developing smart cities.
