SALALAH – The gathering of experts on city planning came out with some important resolutions on the concluding day of the two-day Arab Conference on Sustainable Cities in Salalah on Tuesday. At the conference the policymakers and town planners discussed the challenges and possible solutions for smart cities. The experts agreed to continue the discussion and meet again at the third edition in 2020 with broader participation of public and private sector organisations with a hope that by then some practical aspects would emerge to discuss and elaborate upon.
The role of housing authorities and municipalities remained in the centre of the recommendations, which sought structural transformation of cities through new approaches and methods of urban planning and development. It sought to embody environmental, economic and social principles for an integrated urban system based on data, statistics,
partnership and digital and technical knowledge.
There was a consensus among the participants that cities are the main drivers of development in which public and private sectors are the torch bearers of a movement for sustainable urban development.
Good urbanisation is a political process that has technical requirements. Cities must stay in touch with their surroundings to achieve sustainability and attract investments and projects that promote the city and takes care of its inhabitants, the recommendation said.
It put emphasis on establishing a specialised authority for the management of renewable energy to give investment impetus to renewable energy projects.
The Arab world was exhorted to take advantage of Fourth Industrial Revolution and do not lag behind when the whole world is in the race of building smart cities with technical advancements. This is an ideal situation for enhancing competitiveness and encouraging innovative ideas towards creating smart and sustainable cities. To boost and support technological advancements the experts sought the laws and legislations to maintain pace with digital transformation in the housing sector.
Among financial recommendations done during the two-day session were suggestions to soften ownership fee on transfer and real estate investment funds for the first five years in order to stimulate and encourage investment in these funds.
It also sought exemption of profit tax on assets owned by companies that wish to sell those assets to real estate investment funds in order to motivate companies to deal with the funds.
The real estate development companies has been exhorted to take advantage of modern technologies in construction, rationalisation of energy consumption and consolidate the concepts of sustainable development in real estate projects through customs exemptions, exemptions from fees and incentive tools when importing and applying these technologies.
It is important to motivate people to go for green buildings or energy-neutral buildings and right codes for smart green buildings, said the recommendation.
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