Egypt’s green transition requires greater smart mobility investment: Investing in smart mobility is key to helping countries faced with modern urbanization challenges build sustainable cities and economies. Smart mobility projects will be key to reducing the country’s chronic urban issues, but there are big hurdles to overcome and Egypt remains behind its Gulf neighbors when it comes to smart mobility investment, writes Tarek Selim from the World Economic Forum’s Global Economic Council in an essay within strategic comms firm BLJ’s recently released MENA Tech 2024: Mapping the Technology Landscape report (pdf).

But first of all, what do we mean when we say smart mobility? Smart mobility is a new way to think about transportation and infrastructure to make it “clean, more safe and more efficient,” writes Selim. Whether for existing cities and regions or new ones under construction, the notion of smart mobility pushes us to put in place and create infrastructure for different modes of transport to reduce our reliance on privately owned cars. Smart mobility is about using modern public transport networks and cities made to be traversable on foot or by bike aided by technology to create a healthier climate and residents.

This is especially important for Egypt, the region’s most populous country. Egypt is expected to witness rapid population growth in the next six years — with 20 mn more Egyptians to be added to the count between 2021-2030. A rising population and increasingly densely populated urban areas are compounding the country’s struggles with pollution, inflation, informality, rising energy demand, poverty, public financing, and congestion, and Egypt should look to investments in smart mobility to help solve these issues, argues Selim.

So far, the Gulf seems to be ahead in creating smart cities: Abu Dhabi and Dubai both made it into the top 20 of the International Institute for Management Development’s Smart City Index 2024 (pdf), while Riyadh came in at 25th place, Doha came 48th and Jeddah came 55th. Towards the end of the list out of the 142 cities ranked, Cairo came in an unenviable 114th place, Amman 128th, and Tunis was ranked 137th, while Beirut and Sana’a came in third and second from the bottom of the list.

The Emirates has been leading the way with smart city initiatives that use smart mobility networks: Selim highlights the UAE’s Smart Dubai Initiative to lower traffic congestion by moving 25% of transportation to autonomous modes by 2030 that is expected to free up USD 6 bn a year in consumer spending power based on the expected savings from using less fuel, having fewer accidents, reducing commute times 20-30 minutes on average and bringing down carbon emissions. Over in Abu Dhabi, Selim also points to Mubadala’s Masdar City project to build an eco-friendly, low-carbon development home to some 40k residents.

Saudi Arabia has also got some ambitious projects in the works: Saudi Arabia’s under-construction NEOM project will use a mobility model that not only relies completely on renewables, but has no cars or roads — in the usual sense of the word — instead, mobility will be based on autonomous electric shuttles and on-demand high-speed underground transit systems.

Egypt also has some projects in the pipeline with the idea of smart mobility at their center: The government’s new administrative capital will be the country’s first mega smart city, according to Selim, and is expected to house some 7 mn people. The city has been designed to run using smart mobility systems to manage traffic and encourage public transport, with traffic congestion sensors that use AI, a smart CCTV system, and a smart traffic operations center, Selim notes.

But this isn’t Egypt’s first rodeo with smart mobility systems: The new capital followed the successful implementation of smaller smart mobility networks and cities in Egypt such as New Alamein City, Egypt International City of Olympics, and Borg Al Arab Technology Park.

There are also proposed cross-border projects that Selim thinks could transform the region: An Egypt-Saudi causeway — connecting the Gulf to Egypt and North Africa until the Maghreb region — would “transform the sustainability, tourism, trade and logistics of the region to a whole new standard,” suggests Selim. Selim also proposes a pan-Arab smart mobility railway network that “if implemented, is poised to upgrade the sustainable livelihood of the region and the trade outlook of the world at large.”

Not all countries in the region are keep up though: While Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Oman, and Egypt plan to and are already implementing smart cities and smart mobility systems, other areas of the MENA region are left behind, namely Sudan and Palestine, a divide driven by high financing constraints and security instability.

The region as a whole is also lagging behind globally: Over the past several years, the MENA region has invested some USD 2.3 bn in smart mobility projects annually, which makes up only 1.9% of the globally spent USD 122 bn every year on smart mobility, according to Selim. By 2030, the global market potential for smart mobility investments is expected to reach USD 250 bn and in the MENA region only USD 6 bn.

Selim identified six challenges facing the MENA region as it embarks on a smart mobility journey:

  • Ensure digital access for all: Without data accuracy and strong digital infrastructure, MENA countries will fail to provide an acceptable digital way of life for all citizens.
  • Achieving buy-in: In order to be adopted by the population, smart mobility systems must be presented as affordable, accessible and efficient services. While younger populations show high levels of acceptance to smart mobility, there is more resistance from older segments of the population.
  • Track the change: Monitoring frameworks to assess and monitor progress under environmental, societal and governance metrics and standards will provide ongoing and accurate data to better understand and develop smart mobility systems.
  • Better together: Countries should look for regional collaborative smart mobility projects, like regional airports, driverless trains between nations, and financing frameworks to support smart mobility investments.
  • Upskilling the labor force: Educate the work forces on production, usage, and monitoring of smart mobility systems with a focus on promoting continuous innovation.
  • Ensure openness: Update and coordinate legislative frameworks across the region to promote smart mobility projects.

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