KARACHI: Mayor Wasim Akhtar has said that Karachi will carry on its progress towards becoming a smart city on the lines of Singapore, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Madrid and Stockholm.

However, support from federal and provincial governments to municipal bodies was vital for sustainable development, he said, adding that municipal governments were considered key organisations to cater to the needs of common citizens but weak municipalities — administratively, financially or legally — could not perform such job.

“Municipal governments need such support especially with the rapid growth of urbanisation in most megacities of the world,” said the mayor of Karachi on Monday while speaking to the media at his office after returning home from the Russian city, Ulyanovsk, where he participated in the World Mayors’ Roundtable.

The moot was part of the fourth general assembly of World e-Governments Organisation of Cities and Local Governments (WeGO), held from June 27 to 30, with the mayors, deputy mayors, governors, municipal commissioners, chief executives, chairmen and heads of administrations representing megacities of Turkey, South Korea, Russia, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, the Philippines, Belarus, Chinese Taipei and other countries.

From Pakistan, Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhtar and Peshawar Mayor Asim Khan attended the summit in which they expressed their views on the need of smart cities, present infrastructure and future plans for sustainable cities.

Mr Akhtar said information and communication technology (ICT) could play an important role in providing better municipal services to citizens. “We have to join hands in solving problems of the big cities and work out some effective plans so that we could achieve our target to become smart and sustainable cities,” he said.

Published in Dawn, July 4th, 2017