Yangon, Asia's future megacity challenges and solutions

Yangon Shwedagon Pagoda

Yangon is Myanmar’s largest city with a population of 5 million. The city has been Myanmar’s commercial and financial capital since colonial times and was its political capital until 2005, when the government moved the capital to Nay Pyi Taw, a new city built in the center of the country. Yangon is an attractive and living city that is on the brink of explosive growth, and is set to become a megacity in the future, with its population expected to reach 10 million by 2040.

The expected growth will put significant strain on a city already struggling to address its decrepit infrastructure and limited services. The multi-domains problems that the city encounters are huge. Only 42 percent of Yangon’s citizens have access to running water. Less than 10 percent of the city has sewage infrastructure. At least 40 percent of city residents survive day to day in informal dwellings. There is a need to solve problems such as frequent power cuts, gridlocked traffic and a shortage of housing and office space. There is a need to develop transportation infrastructure, sanitary waste disposal sites, electrical grids and different urban infrastructure, while at the same time considering the importance of conservation of heritage buildings and century-old colonial architecture.

Tourism is likely to grow dramatically and Yangon is the gateway for tourists to Myanmar. The Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon is one of the most important tourist attractions in the country and on every tourist’s must-see list.

In short, a gigantic work is expected! Probably Asia’s real test bed for smart city projects. It is a fantastic opportunity for city planners, urbanism experts and ICT professionals to take part in this endeavor and deploy urban sustainable solutions in order to make Yangon a smart megacity. ICT can play a major role in contributing with innovative, sustainable solutions to help solve all the current problems and the ones that are expected to pop-up, due to this dramatic change of the city.

Ericsson, -in the  Ericsson Myanmar study report  on the impact of mobile communications-, stated that the “overall impact generated by the mobile communication ecosystem is estimated to be 1.5-7.4 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) over the first three years of operations under a medium penetration (2012-2015). There will be approximately 66,000 full time employees (FTEs) and a further 24,000 FTEs are estimated to be generated in the wider economy”. 

I believe that these figures would be much higher for Yangon when introducing innovative ICT services addressing all business and industrial domains.

The government has formed a committee of relevant agencies to develop a plan including the Yangon City Development Committee (YCDC) and the national government’s Department of Human Settlements and Housing Development (HSHD).  One of the decisions is to create a new economic hub in Yangon and where the port facilities will be located. A development plan is needed, leveraging from experiences in other Asian cities and embracing new economic models and new technologies. What if ‘Circular Economy’ is a fundamental part of this plan? We already know that ‘Circular Economy’ is already included in future development plans of many cities like port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands. See my previous post on Circular Economy in Rotterdam.

Big data analytics, cloud-based services, and M2M-enabled services that intelligently provide real-time inputs will adequately provide smart ICT services. New business models between utility and technology providers can be developed to offer these integrated services.

Yangon is particularly a promising market for ICT service providers. These providers will be asked to create and develop the Yangon city services ecosystem. mHealth enables greater access to healthcare, mEducation will benefit communities. Smart Grid solutions for smart power management, real-time Fleet & Transportation information system will prevent future congestion in the city and the port areas, and so many other services and opportuities.

Yangon is to become a driver in the Myanmar’s economic growth as commercial capital, most important port and tourist destination, and the place for import and export manufacturing.

I really believe that ICT can play a central role in helping Yangon city to avoid becoming another sprawling, polluted and highly congested Asian megacity, but instead helping the city to grow into a greener, smarter and more livable metropolis.

PS: This post is published simultanously in the Ericsson Networked Society blog