David South Consulting

Tag: Development Challenges

  • Vietnam Launches Low-cost, High-Quality Video Game

    Vietnam Launches Low-cost, High-Quality Video Game

    By David South, Development Challenges, South-South Solutions

    SOUTH-SOUTH CASE STUDY

    The creative economy offers huge opportunities to the countries of the global South. With the proliferation of new technologies – mobile phones, digital devices, personal computers with cheap or free software, the Internet – the tools to hand for creative people are immense. This begins to level the playing field and allows hardworking and talented people in poor countries to start to compete directly with those in wealthy countries.

    One case of this dynamic at work is the computer and video games industry. Once, they were only created by ‘first world’ nations like Japan, the United States and the United Kingdom. And then came South Korea, as its prosperity increased through the 1980s and 1990s. And then China got in on the game. And India.

    And now innovators in Vietnam are using the medium to make money, and tell a story from a distinctly Vietnamese perspective. And that story is the long-running Vietnam wars that engulfed the country, from the 1950s through the 1960s until 1975 when the last of the United States’ helicopters left Saigon, then the capital of South Vietnam.

    Emobi Games (http://emobigames.vn) from Hanoi, unified Vietnam’s current capital, uses the motto “Enjoy challenges.” Launched in 2011 by founder and director Nguyen Tuan Huy, it has created 7554, a game that places players in the shoes of a Vietnamese soldier during the independence war against the French. Cleverly, it also comes at a competitive price: US $12.

    The game’s name refers to May 7, 1954, the day the French army in Dien Bien Phu surrendered to the Vietnamese People’s Army. This led to the end of the European colonial power’s occupation of its Indochinese colonies. The high death toll and sacrifice from the wars with France and the United States still resonate in the country, and the game reflects this.

    A young team of 20 developers worked on the project for three years. It cost the company an estimated US $802,748 to complete. It was extensively researched to ensure historical accuracy.

    “Dien Bien Phu is a great victory that we are proud of. That day, 7th of May 1954, is a symbol of our strength,” Huy told Ars Technica (http://arstechnica.com).

    “I think it is similar to what Americans feel when they celebrate July 4th. Independence is very important and something worth fighting for. It is also something worth honouring.”

    The game is the end product of an intense struggle to prove critics and sceptics wrong. Many doubted the company could deliver a product that could compete with the more established players. The video game market for firstperson shooters – where the player uses a weapon to engage in first-person combat – has been transformed in the last decade. Many games are highly sophisticated products akin to major films. The Call of Duty (callofduty.com) franchise is a good example. These games have elaborate graphics and story concepts, often use professional actors and come with high-cost, high-publicity marketing campaigns to back up game launches.

    The money at stake is significant: the global video games market is estimated to be worth US $65 billion in 2011 (Reuters). Game makers Activision Blizzard, makers of Call of Duty, had an annual revenue of US $4.8 billion.

    On its website, Emobi proudly takes on the doubters: “We are a very young company in Vietnam, currently we focus on one task: Building a successful PC Video Game for the Vietnamese. Most Vietnamese don’t believe that Vietnam can produce (a) PC Video Game.

    “We, the young people, think about this as a challenge, and want to overcome that. Maybe we will fail, maybe we will succeed. But that’s not important. (It is) Important that it must be time for the Vietnamese Game.”

    Huy admits it was a struggle to make the game.

    “Video games, films or any kind of entertainment in our country must adhere to certain standards,” explains Huy. “Entertainment must not be too violent or too sexy. Our government policy is stricter than other countries, especially when compared to Western countries.”

    Vietnam regulates gaming in various ways including limiting how long people can play online and the opening hours for Internet cafes.

    Out of a population of over 86 million people (World Bank) it is believed Vietnam has 12 million video gamers: a substantial market in the country alone. They play games from around the world and increasingly are willing to pay for legal licenses. This is a key development, since getting gamers to pay represents a revenue stream. With revenue, players in the global South can contribute to the building of their home-grown businesses to become big players.

    “The video game industry is just in its infancy,” said Huy. “We only have four studios that develop major games. Most work on online games. There are not many people who work in game development. Those that do are self-taught. There are no universities that provide education in games development. We learn by doing, failing and doing it again until we get it right.”

    Viewing warfare through non-Western eyes is part of the game’s unique selling point, Huy says.

    “American gamers have not been exposed to many war games where they play as a soldier who is not of American or British background. I think some may find this perspective refreshing.”

    Huy said that “7554 may give some gamers a new perspective. But what is most important is that we create a game that is fun to play.

    “We think we have created a game that FPS (first person shooter) shooter fans will enjoy. The price point is low so that will hopefully allow more people to play the game. I think gamers understand that a good game can come from anywhere in the world. I think gamers are willing to experience different cultures through games, so long as the experience is enjoyable.”

    The 7554 game is scheduled to be launched in the United States and France in February 2012 for personal computers.

    In the future, the company hopes to raid history for more battle scenarios to create new games.

    “Unfortunately there have been many battles fought, so we have a full history to pull from in order to create games,” Huy said.

    Published: January 2012

    Resources

    1) Animation Xpress Asia Pacific: A website packed with interviews and resources for the animation community.Website: http://www.axapac.com

    2) How to make video games: An online website with step-by-step resources to get started. Website:http://www.make-video-games.com

    3) Changing Dynamics of Global Computer Software and Services Industry: Implications for Developing Countries:A report from UNCTAD on how computer software can become the most internationally dispersed high-tech industry. Website:http://www.unctad.org/templates/webflyer.asp?docid=1913&intitemid=2529&lang=1

    4) Southern Innovator: A new magazine launched by UNDP’s Special Unit for South-South Cooperation. The first issue’s theme is mobile phones and information technology. Website: http://www.southerninnovator.org

    Development Challenges, South-South Solutions was launched as an e-newsletter in 2006 by UNDP’s South-South Cooperation Unit (now the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation) based in New York, USA. It led on profiling the rise of the global South as an economic powerhouse and was one of the first regular publications to champion the global South’s innovators, entrepreneurs, and pioneers. It tracked the key trends that are now so profoundly reshaping how development is seen and done. This includes the rapid take-up of mobile phones and information technology in the global South (as profiled in the first issue of magazine Southern Innovator), the move to becoming a majority urban world, a growing global innovator culture, and the plethora of solutions being developed in the global South to tackle its problems and improve living conditions and boost human development. The success of the e-newsletter led to the launch of the magazine Southern Innovator. 

    Creative Commons License

    This work is licensed under a
    Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

    ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5311-1052.

    © David South Consulting 2023

  • Mapping to Protect Kenya’s Environment: the eMazingira Solution

    Mapping to Protect Kenya’s Environment: the eMazingira Solution

    By David South, Development Challenges, South-South Solutions

    SOUTH-SOUTH CASE STUDY

    Powerful new grassroots crowd-mapping tools have sprung up in the past few years across the global South, from Brazil’s Wikicrimes (www.wikicrimes.org) real-time crime mapping technology to the now famous Ushahidi (http://ushahidi.com) – a non-profit company making the free and open source Ushahidi software for information collection, visualization and interactive mapping – from its base in Kenya. They share some common features. All draw on the widespread use of mobile phones in the global South combined with growing access to the Internet, either through 3G mobile phone services, WiFi wireless connections, Internet centres or increasingly available broadband Internet services.

    They then connect the mobile phones to the new mapping services available either on the phones or on the Internet. One example is Google Maps (http://maps.google.com).

    These mapping services are revolutionary in what they bring to poor communities. They allow people to quantify in real time what is happening in their area, as well as see what is happening around the world. Where in the past this sort of mapping and statistical data collection was chiefly the domain of government departments and private services for wealthy corporations, individuals can now participate in the collection of data and map what is happening in their area. This can include mapping actual crime as it occurs, or slum-mapping, where a visual snap-shot of a slum area is made to better target aid and development.

    This is a game-changer for human and sustainable development. It has the potential to close the gap between the collection and analysis of data and action. Accurate, real-time data makes it easier to push government agencies to deliver on their promises, especially during a crisis.

    Kenya’s eMazingira website (www.emazingira.org) is showing the difference these tools can make. It allows people to identify potentially destructive practices that harm the environment – unregulated forestry, pollution, dangerous animals, land degradation, climate change – and alert others to what is happening. This level of awareness, it is hoped, will in time reduce the destruction of local environments and improve the quality of life for both humans and wildlife.

    Mazingira means “environment” in Swahili. The website’s motto is “Keeping the environment clean for the future generation”.

    The eMazingira website is a visually simple affair with a leafy banner image and an interactive map showing what is happening. It is in its first iteration and future upgrades are on the way. A rolling list of incidents keeps readers briefed on what is happening, from “Fire burning” to “Sewer burst” to “Rogue elephant”. There are five main categories to choose from and users can file reports by text message, email, sending a Tweet (www.twitter.com) or filling in an online form on the website.

    “We got to know about Ushahidi during its first deployment which was in Kenya, when it was used to map post-election violence incidents in early 2008,” explains Dunston Machoka, director of BTI Millman Limited (www.btimillman.com) inNairobi,Kenya, a custom software development firm leading the project.

    “We were inspired to develop eMazingira, on one hand, because of the passion we had for environmental conservation and on the other hand, from the success stories we had observed of Ushahidi deployments inKenya,HaitiandJapan.”

    Machoka believes this is a critical time forKenya’s environment: “eMazingira comes at a time when environmental conservation is a huge concern inKenya. Our key observation was that there was no effective reporting mode for environmental incidents for citizens.”

    The website hopes to better engage citizens in tackling the country’s environmental problems and sees this as a way to spur further government action.

    One of eMazingira’s proudest moments came when it won the World Summit Youth Award as the 2011 Runner Up for the use of ICT towards attaining the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.

    But how easy is it to work with this technology? Machoka advises those starting out to turn to the Ushahidi team for support.

    “I would advise them to get in touch with the Ushahidi team through their website and by doing so the deployment will be easy, fast and there will be adequate assistance in case of any challenges,” he said.

    For the next two years, eMazingira will be focusing on rolling out the service to the country, from the main towns to rural areas.

    “At the end of the period we hope to start similar programmes in East Africa based on the lessons learnt inKenya,” confirms Machoka.

    And that isn’t where the eMazingira story will stop: its creators also want to deploy the technology globally, if countries have the right conditions.

    “The key necessity for the application would be good mobile and Internet infrastructure and government that can promote citizen participation in environmental conservation,” Machoka said.

    Published: December 2011

    Resources

    1) With less than five years until the 2015 deadline to meet the Millennium Development Goals, any tool that can make development decisions more precise is a benefit. Website:http://www.undp.org/mdg

    2) The Map Kibera project uses an open-source software programme, OpenStreetMap, to allow users to edit and add information as it is gathered. This information is then free to use by anybody wanting to grasp what is actually happening in Kibera: residents, NGOs, private companies and government officials. Website:http://www.openstreetmap.org

    3) NGO called Rede Jovem is deploying youths armed with GPS (global positioning system)-equipped (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Positioning_System) mobile phones to map the favelas of Rio de Janerio. Website: http://www.redejovem.org.br

    4) Mobile Active.org: MobileActive.org is a community of people and organizations using mobile phones for social impact. They are committed to increasing the effectiveness of NGOs around the world who recognize that the over 4 billion mobile phones provide unprecedented opportunities for organizing, communications, and service and information delivery. Website: http://www.mobileactive.org

    https://davidsouthconsulting.org/2020/12/04/big-data-can-transform-the-global-souths-growing-cities/

    https://davidsouthconsulting.org/2020/12/11/cyber-cities-an-oasis-of-prosperity-in-the-south/

    https://davidsouthconsulting.org/2020/12/04/data-surge-across-global-south-promises-to-re-shape-the-internet/

    https://davidsouthconsulting.org/2022/02/17/digital-mapping-to-put-slums-on-the-map/

    https://davidsouthconsulting.org/2022/10/25/indian-city-slum-areas-become-newly-desirable-places-to-live/

    https://davidsouthconsulting.org/2021/03/04/indian-id-project-is-foundation-for-future-economic-progress/

    https://davidsouthconsulting.org/2022/10/31/mapping-beirut-brings-city-to-light/

    https://davidsouthconsulting.org/2021/03/31/new-weapon-against-crime-in-the-south/

    Development Challenges, South-South Solutions was launched as an e-newsletter in 2006 by UNDP’s South-South Cooperation Unit (now the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation) based in New York, USA. It led on profiling the rise of the global South as an economic powerhouse and was one of the first regular publications to champion the global South’s innovators, entrepreneurs, and pioneers. It tracked the key trends that are now so profoundly reshaping how development is seen and done. This includes the rapid take-up of mobile phones and information technology in the global South (as profiled in the first issue of magazine Southern Innovator), the move to becoming a majority urban world, a growing global innovator culture, and the plethora of solutions being developed in the global South to tackle its problems and improve living conditions and boost human development. The success of the e-newsletter led to the launch of the magazine Southern Innovator. 

    https://davidsouthconsulting.org/2021/03/05/southern-innovator-issue-1/

    Creative Commons License

    This work is licensed under a
    Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

    ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5311-1052.

    © David South Consulting 2022

  • East Africa to get its First Dedicated Technology City

    East Africa to get its First Dedicated Technology City

    By David South, Development Challenges, South-South Solutions

    SOUTH-SOUTH CASE STUDY

    An ambitious scheme is underway to create a vast technology city on the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya.

    With information technology proliferating across Africa after decades of stagnation and underinvestment, a host of exciting new technologies have had to exist within structures not built for the 21st century.

    One attempt to change things is Konza Technology City (konzacity.co.ke), an ambitious project that aims to build the infrastructure to host the companies of the 21st century for Kenya and East Africa. Konza Technology City joins a growing network of technology cities and parks across the global South. If the links between these centres of technological innovation and smart thinking can be strengthened, they have the potential to contribute to exceptional gains in human development.

    Konza Technology City will be built on 5,000 acres (2,023 hectares) of land 60 kilometres south of Kenya’s capital, Nairobi.

    The lead agency on the US $10 billion project is the Ministry of Information and Communication (http://www.information.go.ke/). The Kenyan government is seeking partners and investors to help with funding the project, whose components include a business process outsourcing (BPO) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_process_outsourcing) zone – where specific business functions are contracted to third party providers. There is also a financial district and a commercial district with office space.

    This will be combined with the other side of Konza: hotels, hospitals, a sports stadium and other support services necessary to support a city. The idea is to develop the site over a period of 20 years, with the BPO and IT Educational and Science Park taking up 23 per cent of the site.

    Kenya plans to expand its business process outsourcing sector and has been hosting conferences in Europe to gather the best advice. The sector has experienced double-digit growth in the past three years, rising on the increasing capacity brought by new undersea cables like TEAMs, Seacom and EASSy.

    The idea is to put in place the building blocks of a 21st century Kenya and to become the leading hub for the whole of East Africa. Kenya has an ambitious plan to become a middle-income country by 2030 (http://www.vision2030.go.ke/).

    There is scepticism about large projects in Kenya, with some fearing they will be abandoned before they are finished. But it does seem this project has galvanized a wide community of support. According to IT Web’s (http://www.itweb.co.za/) Ken Macharia, opponents of the project make various arguments. People in the information and communication technologies sector would like to see greater local capacity in place before such massive investment in buildings goes ahead. Others oppose the idea of having a planned city and would like to see things evolve organically. Still others question the government’s capacity to undertake such an ambitious scheme.

    According to Macharia, the ‘if you build it, they will come’ argument is winning the day. The scope and ambition of the project has both excited many players within and outside government and focused their efforts.

    Macharia even believes the public sector is way ahead of the private sector.

    “The government is light years ahead in terms of the vision and drive of developing the ICT sector in the country, while the private sector is trying to catch up,” he said.

    Kenya will become the first country in the region to build a technology city. It can look to China for some examples. One is Shenzhen City and its Science and Technology Park (http://www.ship.gov.cn/en/index.asp?bianhao=20). Or Cairo, Egypt’s Smart Village (http://www.smart-villages.com/).

    Macharia also says the focus solely on technology is missing the bigger impact Konza can have.

    “The city’s concept has financial, educational, commercial and industrial implications, which have not been sold as aggressively as the tech aspect has. Perhaps the better name for the proposed city would be Konza Special Economic Zone, where the key pillars mutually benefit from each other’s presence. Technology, after all, is a means to an end, not the end itself.”

    The timing for a place like Konza City is excellent: undersea cables are being placed around and to Africa. The continent was notorious for being the most underserved continent on the planet and is in a furious transition from this information technology wasteland to a potential oasis of prosperity.

    The undersea cable projects are promising a bandwidth explosion for the continent of Africa. The WACS cable (http://wacscable.com/index.jsp) is being put in place to link South Africa and Britain, and is due to be completed in 2012. It runs up the West Coast of Africa and will become the first direct connection to the undersea cable network for Namibia, the Congo and Togo.

    It will increase South Africa’s bandwidth by an estimated 23 per cent.

    Various technology investors, including the search engine giant Google, are also planning to build an undersea cable linking the so-called BRICS countries by 2014 – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The cable will also link them all to the United States. The technology group i3 Africa is leading the project (http://www.i3-mea.com/africa/), which should open up 21 additional African countries to the world’s undersea cable network.

    Konza Technology City could make Kenya a significant beneficiary of all this new connectivity and bandwidth.

    Published: July 2012

    Resources

    1) Center for Innovation Testing and Evaluation: CITE will represent a 20th century American city with a population of approximately 35,000 people and be built on roughly 15 square miles. CITE’s test city will be unpopulated. CITE will be a catalyst for the acceleration of research into applied, market-ready products by providing “end to end” testing and evaluation of emerging technologies and innovations from the world’s public laboratories, universities and the private sector. Website: http://www.cite-city.com/index.php

    2) Dubai Internet City: Since its official opening in 2000, Dubai Internet City (DIC) has grown to become the Middle East and North Africa’s largest Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Business Park, hosting both global and regional companies. Website: http://www.dubaiinternetcity.com/

    3) Songdo International Business District (IBD) officially opened on August 7, 2009 as a designated Free Economic Zone and the first new sustainable city in the world designed to be an international business district. With its strategic location just 15 minutes driving time from Incheon International Airport and 3 ½ hours flying time to 1/3 of the world’s population and regional markets such as China, Russia and Japan, Songdo IBD will position South Korea as the commercial epicenter of Northeast Asia. Website: http://www.songdo.com/

    4) Nasrec Smart City: South Africa’s own ‘smart city’ is in development. Website: http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=168466

    Development Challenges, South-South Solutions was launched as an e-newsletter in 2006 by UNDP’s South-South Cooperation Unit (now the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation) based in New York, USA. It led on profiling the rise of the global South as an economic powerhouse and was one of the first regular publications to champion the global South’s innovators, entrepreneurs, and pioneers. It tracked the key trends that are now so profoundly reshaping how development is seen and done. This includes the rapid take-up of mobile phones and information technology in the global South (as profiled in the first issue of magazine Southern Innovator), the move to becoming a majority urban world, a growing global innovator culture, and the plethora of solutions being developed in the global South to tackle its problems and improve living conditions and boost human development. The success of the e-newsletter led to the launch of the magazine Southern Innovator. 

    Creative Commons License

    This work is licensed under a
    Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

    ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5311-1052.

    © David South Consulting 2023

  • Ambitious Schemes Hope to Advance Economic Development

    Ambitious Schemes Hope to Advance Economic Development

    By David South, Development Challenges, South-South Solutions

    SOUTH-SOUTH CASE STUDY

    Sometimes it takes a bold, fresh start to speed up economic and human development goals. Taking a large-scale approach has been used around the world, either establishing new trade zones or even a new city.

    Two recent examples in Nigeria and Afghanistan are attempting to speed economic development in their respective countries, with both receiving help from experienced Asian practitioners of rapid economic development.

    The role models for this approach are the so-called “Asian Tigers”: they include Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea. They are admired because each country rose from extreme poverty to become some of the Earth’s richest nations. Importantly, what they did stands as proof that extreme poverty can be escaped from; people can become much wealthier in just a decade or two.

    The pioneer of using trade zones to speed development is the Asian city state of Singapore (http://www.gov.sg/government/web/content/govsg/classic/home)..Fifty years ago it was one of Asia’s poorest countries. With its port (http://www.mpa.gov.sg/) it had a way to turn things around but it also realized in the early 1960s it could not just compete by having cheap labour, something that was plentiful across the developing world (http://www.mti.gov.sg/MTIInsights/Pages/Economic-History-and-Milestones.aspx). It needed unique technical skills that could not be found elsewhere.

    The country was unable to create products and services that it could export and compete in global markets because of a lack of skills, the Government determined. Authorities employed a mix of measures to make the country attractive to foreign companies to boost skills. These included fair enforcement of local laws, tax incentives and upgraded infrastructure, much of it paid for with an infrastructure tax, rather than borrowing. With the influx of new thinking and high-quality skills, new technologies and new ways of doing things, in time, a culture of innovation became hardwired into the way things were done in Singapore.

    Beginning in 1961 with the Jurong Industrial Estate (http://infopedia.nl.sg/articles/SIP_246_2004-12-16.html), the Singapore government set aside land to develop the economy by attracting international businesses and boosting its existing port facilities. It also established the Economic Development Board (EDB) in 1961 and the Singapore Tourism Promotion Board (STPB) in 1964.

    By creating favorable conditions for international businesses to come in and operate, Singapore quickly developed to become one of Asia’s wealthiest trading and manufacturing centres.

    This is a strategy China successfully implemented in the 1980s and 1990s and in turn generated the largest and quickest population shift out of poverty in human history, turning the country into an economic powerhouse.

    The secrets to making this strategy work include understanding what modern infrastructure requirements are necessary for international businesses. These days, this means speedy and generous bandwidth for the Internet, modern airports, roads, security, and quality housing and food.

    One of the biggest contemporary challenges is competition. Whereas Singapore was a pioneer in its day, now, many countries across the global South are pursuing this strategy to spur growth. An international company has many options to consider, and will more than likely gravitate towards the country that makes the best offer with the least risk.

    Trade zones are places ripe with opportunity for innovators. New places tend to be seeking the latest in information and communication technologies, the latest in transportation options, modern housing and office facilities. All of these changes require innovators with fresh thinking to make them work. It is also often easier to introduce new ways of doing things to places that are not coping with legacy infrastructure and old habits and ways.

    Billing itself as a “new model city,” the Lekki Free Zone Lagos, Nigeria (lekkizone.com) in West Africa is trying to bring a fresh start to the city and the region. It is a joint partnership between investors from China and Nigeria.

    Its goal is to better connect regional markets to the global economy. The free trade zone hopes to remove barriers to growth and to attract international investment, becoming the top destination for inward investment in Africa. The project is being run by the Lagos State Government but funded with private capital investment.

    Nigeria has been looking into Free Zones since 1982, as it sought additional ways to earn income apart from oil exports. The Export Processing Zone Act 63 was passed in 1992 and the Calabar Export Processing Zone was eventually set up in 1999 (http://www.nepza.gov.ng/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=18&Itemid=34). Since then, a slew of Free Zones have been set up, or are in the works.

    The Lekki Free Zone is envisioned as a high-tech zone that will eventually lead to the creation of 2 million jobs. The Zone’s investors are targeting businesses working in oil and gas, petrochemicals, electronics, light and heavy equipment, machinery and automobiles, pharmaceuticals, textiles, shopping and banking and financial services.

    Lagos State is home to 21 million people, and the current city of Lagos is on course to become the third-largest megacity in the world. Officials claim the area has an economic growth rate of 16.8 per cent per year.

    The 16,500 hectare Lekki Free Zone, to the southeast of the city, is divided into two parts: an industrial zone and a residential zone. The residential zone will include apartments and villas, shopping malls and plazas, hospitals and clinics, schools and research and development centres and a hotel, tour and recreational centres, golf courses, gyms and water sports facilities.

    Located on the southern coast of Nigeria with connections to the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Guinea, the Lekki Free Zone says it will give companies access to the largest consumer market in Africa, with a potential reach of 500 million people.

    The companies will also be able to draw on Nigeria’s natural resources, including oil, natural gas, timber, rubber, cocoa, Arabic gum and sesame seeds as examples.

    Another new beginning is being sought in war-torn Afghanistan, which is working on building a new city close to the capital, Kabul.

    Kabul New City started construction in 2013 and is planned to be a city of canals, parks and villas. It will be home to 1.5 million people, cost US $33 billion and take 15 years to complete. It is being partly funded by Japan.

    It is a very ambitious scheme for a country that has been mired in conflict for decades. It is hoped the initial seed capital invested by Japan will attract other investors to fully fund the project. Japan got the project going with a commitment to contribute US $106 million between 2009 and 2015.

    The site of Kabul New City is 19 kilometres from the existing Kabul, near the Bagram airbase used by NATO forces in the country.

    Foreign military forces are looking to leave Afghanistan in 2014 and the new city offers a fresh start for the country after years of conflict.

    Located in an area surrounded by the Marko mountains, it is in “one of the safest areas of Afghanistan,” Abdul Habib Zadran, Chief Financial Officer of the Dehsabz-Barikab City Development Authority (http://www.dcda.gov.af/), the agency in charge of the project, told The Sunday Times.

    The project could be a significant leap ahead in modernization from the current conditions in Kabul, where the streets are in poor condition and buildings in disrepair. Kabul was originally built for 800,000 people, according to The Sunday Times, but now has over 4 million residents. Projections forecast the city growing to 6.5 million people by 2025. Kabul will experience extreme pressure to handle this growing population and find the resources to serve it.

    The homes would receive electricity from solar panels and renewable energy sources. Kabul New City will need to tackle the problem of access to enough water to service the growing new city’s population. Plans are afoot to provide water from rivers north of the city.

    The master plan for the new city has been designed by Zahra Breshna (breshna-consulting.com), an Afghan-German company which has also built the new Kabul Bank headquarters. The company calls the project “a new beginning for Kabul.”

    Published: May 2013

    Resources

    1) Tianjin Eco-city: The Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city’s vision is to be a thriving city which is socially harmonious, environmentally-friendly and resource-efficient. Website: tianjinecocity.gov.sg/

    2) Songdo International Business District: Songdo International Business District (IBD) is home to the UN’s Green Climate Fund and is a smart city located in the Republic of Korea built to the highest green building standards. Website: songdo.com/

    3) Singapore: An island and islets in the heart of Southeast Asia, between Malaysia and Indonesia. Website: http://app.www.sg/

    4) Djibouti Free Zone: Djibouti Free Zone was created with one primary goal in mind – to bring about a sea-change in the way Africa thinks and does business. No red tape, ruthless efficiency and genuinely exhaustive services – in essence, we offer the ideal conditions for trade and commerce to flourish in. Website: djiboutifz.com/

    5) Cisco Smart + Connected Cities: Cisco Smart+Connected Communities solutions use intelligent networking capabilities to bring together people, services, community assets, and information to help community leaders address these world challenges. Website: http://www.cisco.com/web/strategy/smart_connected_communities.html

    6) IBM Smarter Cities: Smarter cities drive sustainable economic growth and prosperity for their citizens. Their leaders have the tools to analyze data for better decisions, anticipate problems to resolve them proactively and coordinate resources to operate effectively. Website:http://www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/us/en/smarter_cities/overview/

    7) Southern Innovator Magazine Issue 4: Cities and Urbanization. Website: http://www.scribd.com/doc/133622315/Southern-Innovator-Magazine-Issue-4-Cities-and-Urbanization

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    London Edit

    31 July 2013

    Development Challenges, South-South Solutions was launched as an e-newsletter in 2006 by UNDP’s South-South Cooperation Unit (now the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation) based in New York, USA. It led on profiling the rise of the global South as an economic powerhouse and was one of the first regular publications to champion the global South’s innovators, entrepreneurs, and pioneers. It tracked the key trends that are now so profoundly reshaping how development is seen and done. This includes the rapid take-up of mobile phones and information technology in the global South (as profiled in the first issue of magazine Southern Innovator), the move to becoming a majority urban world, a growing global innovator culture, and the plethora of solutions being developed in the global South to tackle its problems and improve living conditions and boost human development. The success of the e-newsletter led to the launch of the magazine Southern Innovator. 

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