United Nations stated that currently, 55 percent of the world's population lives in urban areas. That means around 2.5 billion more people will be living in cities by 2050. The ongoing scale of urbanization is a considerable challenge, one that puts huge pressure on essential public services, housing availability and the environment

How we respond to this pressure, how we manage our urban centres and plan for their future expansion in Asia and the Pacific, is likely to decide whether recent development gains can be made sustainable.

New technologies especially 5G, A.I and IoT could hold great promise for more effective urban solutions. From smart grids and district energy solutions, or real-time traffic management, to waste management and water systems, smart technologies will enable our future cities to operate more effectively. They could also make them more inclusive and accessible for persons with disabilities. We must encourage smart city developers to use standards, which would give persons with diverse disabilities full access to the physical infrastructure and information.

This session aims to explore how the cities could be prepared to face this wave of smart cities in terms of hardware and humanware. We hope at the end of the session, the session could wrap up indicative information for government, industries and communities to understand that the smart cities initiatives will make their cities are efficient and effectively being managed to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.