The Saudi government's policies, through focusing the budget on basic services for citizens and multifaceted spending in vital sectors, succeeded in getting four Saudi cities into the IMD Smart Cities Index for the first time; 2023 was a year full of achievements in humanization and quality of life in cities.

• Information and communication technology.
• Sustainable Infrastructure.
• Inclusivity in services.
• Public transport and smart mobility.
• Governance of government services.
• Community engagement and listening to residents.
• Cybersecurity.
• Strengthening the economy and creating jobs.
• Improving health and education.
• Environmental sustainability.

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Press reports have predicted that the population living in cities will reach 60% of the global census by 2030, which emphasizes the urgent need for smart cities that can overcome the challenges of the exponential population increase in cities, as well as the huge investments in smart cities, the market size of which will reach 870 billion dollars by 2026.

Smart Cities.

Smart cities are a necessity, not a luxury

For such statistics, the choice to move towards smart cities in this century was not a choice dictated by luxury, but rather an inevitability imposed by demographic changes and the technological revolution itself on the world, and cities are crowded with population accompanied by increasing development requirements to meet the needs of living in them. Smart cities are seen as the easiest in their space and virtual world, which are relied upon to adopt policies and city plans that include huge human communities in a more developed, innovative and environmentally friendly environment based on a developmental mix that combines human and social capital with digital and information infrastructure.

Reducing resource depletion

<In this context, Dr. Waleed bin Saad Al-Zamil, associate professor in the Department of Urban Planning at King Saud University, pointed out in an interview with WAS that cities in the past suffered from the development of industrial and economic activity at the expense of depleting the environment and resources; which negatively affected the quality of life and levels of community satisfaction, stressing that modern trends in urban planning in the world came to serve the principles of sustainability, that is, a balance between economic, social and environmental dimensions to serve the current generation and future generations.On the investment aspect of smart cities, Ibrahim bin Abdullah Al-Zahimil, a consultant, said Smart cities are one of the huge investments that the developed countries of the world are heading towards and the market size will reach 870 billion dollars by 2026, and the development of these cities may create commercial opportunities worth 2.46 trillion dollars and revenues worth 241.02 billion dollars by 2025.