Development of urbanization in the BRICS countries was discussed at the Exposition

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On June 21, the session "Smart City: A Human-Centric Approach to Urbanization" was held. Its participants — representatives of Russia, India, China, the United Arab Emirates and Brazil — discussed the development of digitalization, urban economy, and competitiveness. The event was held in Pavilion No. 75.

Konstantin Mikhailik, Deputy Minister of Construction, Housing and Utilities of Russia, addressed the participants and guests of the event with a welcoming speech. He told about the project of digitalization of urban economy "Smart City".

"The idea of the project originated from the desire to reduce the period of construction and commissioning of buildings. One of its crucial elements was the voting "For Objects of Improvement", which allows you to determine how the city will look like in the near future. Over the last six years of the project, work has been going on in 15 areas: housing and utilities, transportation systems and urban management. We have developed the IQ-cities index. It covers 235 cities of Russia and allows to evaluate the dynamics of implementation of technological solutions," emphasized Konstantin Mikhailik.

In turn, Kunal Kumar, Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Building and Urban Construction of the Republic of India, said that over the past 75 years the population in cities has increased by 400 million people.

"India today is the most populous country in the world. There are about 450 million people living in cities at the moment and the country has a total population of nearly 1.4 billion people. I would like to emphasize that every year we are building up a huge amount of areas. People are migrating from rural to urban areas in search of jobs, better quality of life, healthcare and education," said Kunal Kumar.

Li Pengfei, Executive Deputy Director of the Intelligent Planning Information Centre of the Chinese Academy of Urban Planning and Design, noted the importance of urbanization in a post-industrial society.

"China is actively developing urban planning policies in terms of building large cities. The state has started building large-scale smart cities. The multi-year plan provides for solving complex issues in terms of urbanization," Li Pengfei noted.

The experience of digitalization of the Kaluga region and solutions from the business community in terms of ecology and monitoring of solid waste management were also presented. The discussion was moderated by Daria Dolgikh, Deputy Director for Smart City direction of the Project Directorate of the Ministry of Construction, Housing and Utilities of Russia.

The panel session "Smart City: A Human-Centric Approach to Urbanization" was held as part of the BRICS Urbanization Forum. The Forum is a platform for the BRICS countries to exchange best practices and opinions on the development of housing construction and architecture, creation of a comfortable urban environment, urbanism and specialized education. It takes place on June 21-22. It is held within the framework of Russia's BRICS chairmanship. The Roscongress Foundation is the operator of the chairmanship events.