On September 6, the 2019 Sustainable Cities and Human Settlements Awards (SCAHSA Awards) Ceremony was held at the United Nations Convention Center at Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. With its green planing and building system, integrated planning and comprehensive application of smart city technologies, Forest City won the “2019 Sustainable Cities and Human Settlements Awards (SCAHSA Award) Global Green Smart City Award”.

This is the fourth time that the Forest City has won this international award since 2016. In 2018, the Forest City won the “Global Model Of City-Industry Integration Award”, and its industrial building system IBS factory won the “Global Green Building Industrial Park Award” in 2017. In 2016, the Forest City won the “Global Human Settlements Award on Planning and Design”.

The Sustainable Cities and Human Settlements Awards Ceremony (SCAHSA Award) is one of the highlights of the 2019 Global Forum on Huamn Settlement Annual Meeting (GFHS 2019), which aims to promote urban transformation, urban innovation, and achieve green development and recognize units that have achieved success in areas such as high quality, flexibility and sustainable urban development. The annual conference was hosted by the Global Forum on Huamn Settlement (GFHS), the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), and the World Urban Campaign (WUC). It has been held for 14 consecutive years. This year’s annual conference, with the theme of “Sustainable Development of Cities and Human Environment in the Digital Age”, attracted senior officials from the United Nations and African countries, ministers and community leaders, and more than 500 representatives of government and enterprises to share innovative solutions and build sustainable partnerships.

At the awards ceremony, Oliver Chinganya,Director, African Center for Statistics and Officer-in-Charge of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), presented the “Global Green Smart City Award” to Forest City and recognized its smart city development. He believes that technology continues to transform the planning, development and management of human settlements. Numerous digital tools are enabling communities and countries access key services, improve flow of transportation, enhance information and knowledge flows drive business competitiveness and keep our settlements safe. The smart city concept of the forest city is also echoing this global development trend.

Country Garden Overseas Division Deputy General Manager Ms Kelly Wang pointed out, “Forest City is as much a city as a forest, where we will not only make the city to embrace forest but co-exit with forest.”She said “Forest City will keep innovating through the roadmap. In Phase 1,Focus on forging high-quality applications; In Phase 2,Build up united platform empowering service, industry and city management; In Phase 3, Incubate self-recycling and multi-level industrial ecosystem.”

In addition to receiving awards, Forest City has also formally joined the International Green Model City Initiative (IGMC) global network to promote sustainable urban development. IGMC is a United Nations-supported, innovative green low-carbon urban development action plan. The IGMC initiative stimulates forward-looking government, business and social forces to work together to promote sustainable urban development in the world.

Forest City is a 30km² mixed-use development located at Iskandar Malaysia. Adjacent to the Malaysia–Singapore Second Link, it is a JV development between Country Garden and Malaysian partner Esplanade Danga 88. With a committed investment of approximately US$100 billion, it comprises of four reclaimed islands with the twin themes of ‘integrating businesses and the city’ as well as ‘urban innovation’. The project aims to generate economic growth through eight key industries – tourism and MICE, healthcare, education and training, regional headquarters, nearshore finance, e-commerce service base in ASEAN, application of emerging technique and service centre, and sectors related to a green and smart city. Since 2016, Forest City has won numerous awards in terms of sustainable development, green buildings, industry-integrated city, and human settlements. At the same time, Forest City is also actively exploring the development of smart cities, and won the international IDC Asia Pacific Smart City Award in July 2019.