Latest news with #ChristosCabolis
Zawya
07-05-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Muscat rises to 87th in IMD Smart City Index
Muscat – Muscat has improved its standing in the global IMD Smart City Index, rising to 87th place out of 142 cities ranked worldwide in the 2025 edition. Muscat was ranked 88th in 2024 and 96th in 2023. The index, developed by World Competitiveness Center (WCC) of IMD Business School, assesses cities on how they balance economic and technological development with quality of life indicators such as housing, healthcare, mobility, governance and inclusiveness. Muscat's overall performance earned it a 'B' grade, with strong scores in areas such as access to green spaces, public safety, online access to services and healthcare provision. However, the survey highlighted housing affordability as the leading concern among residents. More than 60% of respondents in Muscat identified affordable housing and unemployment as the top priorities for the city's future development, reflecting a global trend where housing emerged as the dominant issue in 110 out of 146 cities surveyed. The survey noted that access to affordable housing has become a global challenge, driven by rising prices and supply shortages, a situation impacting cities as diverse as Dublin, Vancouver and Dubai. Commenting on the broader findings, Arturo Bris, Director of WCC, said, 'Access to housing is a global issue, driven by three major factors – population moves and immigration reducing the supply of affordable housing, overall price increases, and increasing prices of certain commodities.' Muscat also scored positively in public safety, basic sanitation services and air quality, with residents expressing satisfaction in these areas. The city's initiatives in digital governance – including online public services and platforms for civic engagement – were highlighted as contributors to improved trust in local authorities. Globally, Zurich topped the 2025 Smart City Index, followed by Oslo and Geneva. Within the region, Dubai (4th) and Abu Dhabi (5th) both entered the top ten for the first time, reflecting their progress in healthcare, public spaces and environmental management. Jeddah is ranked 27th, Doha 33rd, Manama 36th and Mecca 39th. Experts noted that sustaining growth requires addressing urban challenges through strategic planning. 'Smart cities succeed when they prioritise liveability, sustainability and governance, using technology as a tool to empower residents,' said Christos Cabolis, Chief Economist at WCC. The IMD survey emphasised the fact that there is no 'one-size-fits-all' formula for becoming a smart city. Instead, success depends on building strong foundations of quality basic services, leveraging technology to address local needs and ensuring inclusive growth. © Apex Press and Publishing Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (
Muscat Daily
06-05-2025
- Business
- Muscat Daily
Muscat rises to 87th in IMD Smart City Index
Muscat – Muscat has improved its standing in the global IMD Smart City Index, rising to 87th place out of 142 cities ranked worldwide in the 2025 edition. Muscat was ranked 88th in 2024 and 96th in 2023. The index, developed by World Competitiveness Center (WCC) of IMD Business School, assesses cities on how they balance economic and technological development with quality of life indicators such as housing, healthcare, mobility, governance and inclusiveness. Muscat's overall performance earned it a 'B' grade, with strong scores in areas such as access to green spaces, public safety, online access to services and healthcare provision. However, the survey highlighted housing affordability as the leading concern among residents. More than 60% of respondents in Muscat identified affordable housing and unemployment as the top priorities for the city's future development, reflecting a global trend where housing emerged as the dominant issue in 110 out of 146 cities surveyed. The survey noted that access to affordable housing has become a global challenge, driven by rising prices and supply shortages, a situation impacting cities as diverse as Dublin, Vancouver and Dubai. Commenting on the broader findings, Arturo Bris, Director of WCC, said, 'Access to housing is a global issue, driven by three major factors – population moves and immigration reducing the supply of affordable housing, overall price increases, and increasing prices of certain commodities.' Muscat also scored positively in public safety, basic sanitation services and air quality, with residents expressing satisfaction in these areas. The city's initiatives in digital governance – including online public services and platforms for civic engagement – were highlighted as contributors to improved trust in local authorities. Globally, Zurich topped the 2025 Smart City Index, followed by Oslo and Geneva. Within the region, Dubai (4th) and Abu Dhabi (5th) both entered the top ten for the first time, reflecting their progress in healthcare, public spaces and environmental management. Jeddah is ranked 27th, Doha 33rd, Manama 36th and Mecca 39th. Experts noted that sustaining growth requires addressing urban challenges through strategic planning. 'Smart cities succeed when they prioritise liveability, sustainability and governance, using technology as a tool to empower residents,' said Christos Cabolis, Chief Economist at WCC. The IMD survey emphasised the fact that there is no 'one-size-fits-all' formula for becoming a smart city. Instead, success depends on building strong foundations of quality basic services, leveraging technology to address local needs and ensuring inclusive growth.
Arabian Business
09-04-2025
- Business
- Arabian Business
Dubai, Abu Dhabi rank in top 5 smart cities in IMD 2025 index amid global housing crisis
Dubai and Abu Dhabi ranked in the top 5 smart cities in the IMD 2025 index. The two UAE cities made it to the top 10 smart city index (SCI) of IMD for the first time. The index ranked Zurich first overall, followed by Oslo and Geneva. Dubai, which scored 82.8/100 on medical services and 83.4/100 for green spaces, was ranked fourth, while Abu Dhabi, which scored 84.7/100 for medical services provision and 83.8/100 for satisfactory green spaces, was ranked fifth. The Index, now in its sixth year, is the tool that the World Competitiveness Center (WCC) – IMD's competitiveness powerhouse – uses to assess how cities balance various dimensions, ranging from jobs and housing to environmental concerns and inclusiveness. WCC Chief Economist Christos Cabolis said the top 10 demonstrate that smart cities succeed when they prioritise livability, sustainability, and governance, using technology not as a goal but as a tool to empower residents and address local challenges. New entrants to the index this year were AlUla in Saudi Arabia, Astana (formerly Nur Sultan) in Kazakhstan, Caracas in Venezuela, Kuwait City in Kuwait, Manama in Bahrain, and San Juan in Puerto Rico. 'The top three cities are able to provide all the amenities citizens require for a good quality of life while not suffering from diseconomies of scale such as congestion caused by public transport, and pollution,' said William Milner, Associate Director of the WCC. 'They have obtained a somewhat exceptional status thanks to their size, but also their niche economies – oil in the case of Norway, and high quality and high value-added manufacturing exports in the case of Switzerland,' he said. Milner said smaller, more independent economies could also prove more protected in the Trump trade war because they have goods that are not highly replaceable in the short term – the knowledge needed would take a generation. WCC said making housing more affordable is the top priority for most of the respondents of the survey generating the 2025 IMD Smart City Index. 'Access to housing is a global issue, driven by three major factors: population moves and immigration reducing the supply of affordable housing, overall price increases, and increasing prices of certain commodities,' said WCC Director Arturo Bris. The 2025 SCI report also touched upon how US President Trump's tariffs on steel (and potentially lumber) are expected to increase development costs, putting further stress on an already-constrained housing supply. The housing crisis is cutting across geographical divides, felt in cities as diverse as Dublin, Vancouver, and Dubai, the report said. In these cities, between 80-90 percent of the 2025 SCI survey respondents expressed concern over the affordability of housing – saying it was a priority area in their city, it said. 'As we move into a new geopolitical order, cities will play a much more important role than countries,' Bris said. 'We have moved into a fragmented economy and major urban areas will be the center of all economic activities in the coming years,' he added.
